Justin Fox and his brother Austin stopped by Front Row Motorsports on Monday to look at the car that will pay tribute to their great grandfather.
“It was awesome,” Justin told NBC Sports. “I know my dad’s very excited for it. My brother is. Our whole family is just really excited. It’s a thrill moment to see it come to life and how good they made it.”
In a sport that celebrates family, the patriarch of four generations who have worked in NASCAR will be celebrated on a car driven by a third-generation racer.
Todd Gilliland’s No. 34 car for Front Row Motorsports will pay tribute to Ray Fox, a mechanical wizard in racing and early nominee to the NASCAR Hall of Fame, in Sunday’s Cup race at Darlington Raceway as part of the sport’s throwback weekend.
Justin Fox, the fourth generation of his family in NASCAR, won’t just be an observer in the event but a participant. He is the rear tire changer on Gilliland’s car.
His involvement in the sport goes back to Ray Fox, who was a mechanic, car owner and later a NASCAR official. Fox built the engine in the car that Fireball Roberts won with in the 1955 race on the Daytona beach course. Fox joined Carl Kiekhafer’s team in 1956. He helped lead the team to win 22 of the season’s first 26 races and was selected as the mechanic of the year that season.
Junior Johnson’s 1960 Daytona 500 win came in a car Fox built. Fox was a car owner from 1962-74. His cars won 16 times, including nine times with Johnson. Fox’s team also won the 1964 Southern 500 with Buck Baker as driver.
Fox retired in the early 1970s but returned to the sport in 1990 as NASCAR’s engine inspector, a role he held until he retired at age 80 in 1996.
The car Todd Gilliland will drive in Sunday’s race at Darlington Raceway pays tribute to Ray Fox and is made to look like this car Fox had as a car owner.
Photo: Front Row Motorsports
His son, Ray Fox II, worked for years at Robert Yates Racing. Ray Fox III started with the Robert Yates Racing in 1988 and stayed there until the team closed in 2007. He worked for three different teams before joining Team Penske in 2012. He won a Cup title in 2018 with Joey Logano. He currently serves as the car chief for Ryan Blaney’s team at Team Penske. Justin Fox made his Cup debut as a tire changer last July at Pocono with the Wood Brothers and is with Front Row Motorsports and Todd Gilliland’s team this season.
The idea to honor Ray Fox came from Justin after a group text asking the team for throwback suggestions.
Gilliland, whose grandfather and father raced, said this is a special scheme for him.
“It definitely gives me more of a appreciation for it,” Gilliland said because of the family ties. “ … I thought it was fitting also in Darlington’s 75th year of running, going back to kind of where it started for that racetrack was really cool.”
While Justin Fox knew many of the stories about his great grandfather, he’s learned more about him in researching paint schemes to consider for Gilliland’s car.
One that stands out is how he got David Pearson to drive for Ray Fox in seven races in 1962.
“The story my dad told me, he found David Pearson roofing,” Justin said. “So he pulled him off the roof of a house and said, ‘Hey, I want you to drive for me.’”
Justin hopes that the attention around the car this weekend will help revive interest in Ray Fox and help lead Fox to being inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame some day.
“It would mean a lot,” Justin said. “ … It would just show his hard work and what all he had to do in order to get my family to where we are today.”
Sunday, shortly before the engines fire, Justin will be there in front of of the car that honors his great grandfather with other family members for pictures to capture the special moment.
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