Veteran Official Focuses On Whelen All-American Series
Cox committed to NASCAR’s grassroots
A veteran NASCAR official whose career has spanned four decades is working with the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series exclusively starting this season.
Ed Cox, of Ormond Beach, Fla., who accepted his first NASCAR assignment as an official in 1977, retains the title of NASCAR Special Services Representative, which he has held since 1984. Throughout his career, Cox has had other duties simultaneously, including that of NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Director, which he held for 15 years concluding in 2008.
“Working with NASCAR Home Tracks has always been part of my job, and I just love it, I’ll tell you that,” Cox said. “I know where we come from – the weekly tracks – and I have a passion for them.”
Cox is known as a steady administrator as well as a go-to official in the area of competition issues. He also devised the current driver resume process used to approve drivers and help them work their way up the NASCAR ladder.
“Ed has been a mainstay in NASCAR for several decades,” said Jim Hunter, NASCAR vice president of corporate communications. “He has worked very closely with many of our regional tours, as well as helping develop the original late model stock car rules. Ed has always had a passion for the sport and its competitors.”
With the refocus of his duties, Cox now works with NASCAR Whelen All-American Series drivers, teams and tracks year round.
Cox has been around short-track racing most of his life. Born and raised in Roanoke, Va., he was in high school when he started going to area tracks with a neighbor, Bob Cook, who owned and drove a pavement Modified. They raced at tracks in Roanoke and Lynchburg, as well as Martinsville Speedway and the old fairgrounds track in Richmond.
Cox enlisted in the United States Air Force in 1960, and was based in Savannah, Ga. He did two tours in Germany as an Airman First Class, and was crew chief for a supply flight to the South Pole.
Following discharge from the Air Force, Cox worked at the old Savannah Speedway. Business interests drew him to Charlotte, N.C., in 1977, when he began working part time for NASCAR in its touring series divisions. He relocated to Daytona Beach and began his full-time career in 1985.
Cox and his wife, Judy, have two grown children, Butch and Cari. Both are graduates of Florida State University and both live in the Charlotte area.
Sources: Paul Schaefer/NASCAR PR