Former engine builder and car owner Ray Fox, who helped several of the sport’s legendary drivers win some of its most important races, has passed away at the age of 98 according to a report from the Daytona Beach News-Journal.
The N-J’s Godwin Kelly relays word from a family spokesperson that Fox had been hospitalized a few days ago and that he’d been suffering from pneumonia. Two of his daughters were at his side when he died.
Fox was a key figure in stock car racing during the 1950s and 1960s. He built the winning engine for Fireball Roberts in the 1955 Daytona Road & Beach Course race.
However, Roberts was disqualified after the sanctioning body determined that the pushrods had been illegally modified by the car’s mechanic.
Nonetheless, Fox was brought on to work for Carl Kiekhaefer the following year. With Fox’s help, Kiekhaefer’s cars dusted the competition to the tune of 22 wins in 26 races and Fox himself earned the Chief Mechanic of the Year award.
A few years later, Junior Johnson took a Fox-built car to the win in the 1960 Daytona 500. Future NASCAR Hall of Famer David Pearson also won three races that year in a Fox-built car and captured Rookie of the Year honors.
Two years later, Fox tried his hand at team ownership and had a good amount of success. He won 14 races, with Johnson chipping in nine of them and Buck Baker earning two, including the 1964 Southern 500 at Darlington.
Other drivers that suited up for Fox included Cale Yarborough, Fred Lorenzen, and Buddy Baker.
Fox retired from the sport in the early 1970s, but in 1990, he came back to help NASCAR on its technical side as an engine inspector. He stayed in that role until 1996, when he retired again.
Our thoughts and prayers are with Fox’s family and friends at this time.
The focus of the Detroit Monster Energy Supercross round was on the mid-pack battle while Aaron Plessinger pulled away from the field, but when he crashed after hooking his foot in the dirt, the results once more looked like we’ve come to expect, with Chase Sexton, Cooper Webb and Eli Tomac sharing the podium for the fifth time in 10 rounds.Justin Barcia was part of an exciting, four-rider battle in the middle of Detroit’s A-Main. – Feld Motor Sports
For Sexton, Plessinger’s late-race crash was a vindication of sorts. Several times already this season, Sexton has crashed while battling for the lead and the points that has cost him keeps him sporting the red plate. He lost points in Detroit for a different reason, however.
Sexton was allowed to keep the win, but was penalized seven points for jumping in a red cross section of the course. As a result, he dropped four points to Webb and two to Tomac. Sexton is now 17 points behind Webb in the championship hunt.
One week after snatching the red plate from Tomac for the first time in 2023, Webb stretched his advantage by two. With his second-place finish, Webb holds a three-point lead over Tomac, which essentially means both riders control their fate in the coming weeks. Webb continues to have a sweep of the top five this season with his sixth consecutive podium.
Coming off his worst finish of the season, Tomac rebounded to finish third. His eighth-place result last week was partially attributed to a stiff neck that hindered him in traffic and he still suffered some of those same effects in Detroit. Before Plessinger’s crash, he was destined to be the only rider in the three-man title scrum to finish off the podium in Detroit.
It is surprising what one position can do for one’s confidence.
Justin Barcia scored his fourth top-five of the season. He was part of the exciting four-man battle that dominated the middle stages of the race before Sexton and Webb gained a little separation. Finishing less than three seconds behind Tomac, he kept that rider honest for the entire race.
Coming off his first win of the season, Ken Roczen finished fifth. It was his seventh top-five of the season and it elevated him to fifth in the standings.
Hunter Lawrence tied his brother Jett Lawrence with 10 wins each after another dominating ride in the Detroit Supercross race and the results in the points continue to widen. With his fifth win in six rounds and a worst finish of third, Lawrence now has a 35-point advantage over Nate Thrasher with four rounds remaining. Finishes of 14th or better in the final four mains will give him his first 250 championship.
Strong starts have been one of the keys to Hunter Lawrence’s success in 2023. – Feld Motor Sports
Jett will have an opportunity to retake his wins’ lead as Supercross heads west for the next two rounds in Seattle and Glendale, Arizona.
Nate Thrasher earned his third second-place finish of the season with a gap of 7.6 seconds to Lawrence. He won the overall in Arlington earlier this season, but a 15th-place finish in the opening round in Houston and 10th in Daytona hurts his championship chances.
Haiden Deegan scored his second podium and fourth top-five in six rounds of his young career. On his way to that finish, he rode aggressively against his teammate Jordon Smith in the heat race. Fans are getting a glimpse of what his on-track personality might be.
Jeremy Martin continues to be the model of consistency. He has not finished worse than sixth or better than fourth in six rounds now and that has allowed him to close to within two points of third in the 250 East championship standings.
Max Anstie entered the race weekend second in the points, but a hard crash in heavy traffic early in the main forced him to retire after two laps. Earning only one point for the round, he plummeted to fifth in the standings.
The news was worse for Smith, who was dropped out of the top nine in his heat after the altercation with Deegan and failed to advance through the LCQ. In the last chance race, he stalled his engine and had to mount a determined charge. He got only as high as seventh in that race after crashing while attempting to make a pass on fourth-place Jack Chambers.
