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Justin Fox and his brother Austin stopped at the front motorsport on Monday to look at the car that will pay their tribute to their grandfather.
“It was fantastic,” Justin told NBC Sports. “I know my dad is very excited about it. My brother is. Our whole family is just very excited. It is an exciting moment to see that it comes to life and how well they made it. “
In a sport celebrating family, the patriarch of four generations who worked in Nascar will be celebrated on a car driven by a third generation driver.
Todd Gilliland’s Number 34 car for front row motorsports will pay tribute to Ray Fox, a mechanical wizard in racing and early nominee at the Nascar Hall of Fame, in Sunday’s Cup Race at Darlington Raceway as part of the sport’s relapse weekend.
Justin Fox, the fourth generation of his family in Nascar, will in that case not only be an observer, but a participant. He is the rear tire changer on Gilliland’s car.
His involvement in the sport goes back to Ray Fox, a mechanic, motor owner and later an NASCAR official. Fox built the engine in the car with which Fireball Roberts won in the 1955 race on the Daytona Beach track. 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 victory comes in a car that Fox built. Fox was a 1962-74 car owner. His cars have won 16 times, including nine times with Johnson. Fox’s team also won the 1964 Southern 500 with Buck Baker as manager.
Fox retired in the early 1970s, but returned to the sport in 1990 as the Nascar engine inspector, a role he played until he retired at the age of 80 in 1996.
His son, Ray Fox II, worked at Robert Yates Racing for years. 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 with Joey Logano in 2018. He currently serves as the Car Head of Ryan Blaney’s team at Team Penske. Justin Fox made his cup debut last July as a tire changer in Pocono with the Wood Brothers and this season is at the front row of car sports and Todd Gilliland’s team.
The idea of honoring Ray Fox comes from Justin to a group text that the team asked for setting backlash.
Gilliland, whose grandfather and father chased, said it was a special scheme for him.
“It certainly gives me more appreciation for it,” Gilland said because of the family ties. “… I thought it fit in Darlington’s 75th year of running, and went back to the kind where it started for that racetrack was very nice.”
While Justin Fox knew many of the stories about his grandfather, he learned more about him in the investigation into paint schemes to consider for Gilliland’s car.
One that stands out is how he drove David Pearson in 1962 in seven races.
“The story my dad told me, he found David Pearson roof,” Justin said. “Then he pulled himself off the roof of the house and said, ‘Hey, I want you to drive for me. ”
Justin hopes that the attention around the car will help revive the interest in Ray Fox over the weekend and result in him being admitted to the Nascar Hall of Fame one day.
“That would mean a lot,” Justin said. “… it would just show his hard work and what he just had to do to get my family where we are today.”
On Sunday, shortly before the engine fire, Justin will be there in front of the car that his grandfather honors with other family members for photos to capture the special moment.
