RAYMOND FOX
05/28/1916 - 06/15/2014
a retired American engine builder, NASCAR car owner and NASCAR engine inspector. Fox is pictured at left with driver David Pearson. Ray Fox built Fireball Roberts' engine for the 1955 race on the Daytona Beach Road Course. He started building the engine at 8:00 pm the night before the race and got done at 4:00 am. Roberts car qualified fourth and led every lap of the 160 lap event. NASCAR disqualified the car 24 hours after the event, for the sanctioning body found the pushrods to be 30/1000 of an inch too short. Mechanic Red Vogt had ground the push rods even, which was an illegal modification. Flock was awarded the victory. It was the last NASCAR race to be taken away from the winner. Subsequent rules violations have resulted in fines and point loses. Carl Kiekhaefer hired Fox and Herb Thomas in 1956. Fox said
"He hired us because we were the only ones who could outrun his cars." Kiekhaefer's cars won 22 of the first 26 races, with drivers Thomas, Buck Baker, Tim Flock, and Speedy Thompson. Fox was named the Mechanic of the Year. Fox began owning his own car starting in 1962. Drivers to race in Fox's car include Buck Baker, Buddy Baker, Darel Dieringer, Junior Johnson, Fred Lorenzen, Fireball Roberts, Cale Yarborough, and LeeRoy Yarbrough. 1962 saw Junior Johnson drive for Fox and it proved successful for the duo. In race #52 of the 53 race season, Johnson would find victory lane at Charlotte. 1963 proved
even more successful as Johnson won a race early in the season, and that propelled him to a seven win season. 1964 saw Johnson win yet again, even though he only started 11 races, while Buck Baker won twice driving Fox's car in his 22 starts. Baker posted 11 top five finishes. Fox only fielded a car for eight events in 1965 but it did produce one top five finish. Little known driver Earl Balmer won a race for Fox in 1966; albeit one of the Daytona twin 125 mile qualifying races. Back at that time the Twin 125's counted as official wins. Buddy Baker on a race for Fox in 1967, and also claimed Fox's final CUP win in 1968 grabbing the checkers in the World 600. Fox continued to field cars through 1974. Jim Vandiver posted the best finish in the final years as he finished second at Talladega. As an owner Fox compiled 14 wins, including the Southern 500, and World 600. As a side note; in 1965 LeeRoy Yarbrough drove a Fox-prepared Dodge Coronet race car
(shown at right) to a new closed-course world speed record at 181.818 mph. He set the record on the second lap and he was increasing speed on the third lap when the car began smoking. NASCAR black flagged the car and Yarbrough slowed down. When he arrived in the pits, the pit crew found a bolt in the tire. The bolt easily could have caused a flat tire, which could have been deadly at high speed.
All Photos copyright and are property of their respective owners