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and be competitive in the class. Especially with Phil Shuler. He ran 33x10.5s on the Shadow, on the shorter wheelbase car. I think a lot of people forget that. He did that years and years ago and was successful at it.
But the biggest part was not doing anything crazy. Not trying to speed me up quicker than what I should’ ve been doing. The biggest thing for me and the team was to get me comfortable in the car – knowing where I’ m at on the racetrack, knowing when to lift my foot, knowing to get my‘ chutes out on time – those type of things before we really sped me right up. I say that, but then we come out at the first race and go 3.98. Things just started to align and we got a handle on the car and we’ re having fun doing it.
Your reaction times have been very solid. How important is it to you to make sure you’ re doing your job as the driver?
It’ s so important especially when you have the guys I have on my team:“ Nova Joe” Albrecht, who’ s been driving for years, and Andy Mac, another guy that’ s a part of the team, drives his own race car. Jeffrey [ Barker ] is always lending a hand. I take advice from all these guys. Phil’ s never been in a race car, but he’ s been around it long enough to give advice on a lot of stuff.
I got beat on a holeshot at Virginia. I’ ll get better with more laps in the car. I just try to stay on top of it. I just get in my zone when I get in that car and I’ m just locked in.
Is there anything you learned playing football that you’ ve used in racing?
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We have a whiteboard in the trailer and the goal is always to qualify No. 1 and win the race. We’ ve been checking the No. 1 qualifiers box and we’ ve made it to semis and went some rounds in a really tough, competitive class, but we need to check that last box. We’ ve got no quit in us, so we’ re just going to keep striving to check that last box.
You have a Pro Boost car coming together. Why are you taking that next step?
The new car is called“ Fixed Income.” It’ s a‘ 69 Camaro and it’ s been under construction for almost two years now. Shuler, KTR, and the whole group will be putting our minds together on this new car. The reason I decided to step into Pro Boost is because I like the competitiveness. That’ s where I want to be. I want to be up there and race with the Ken Quartuccios and the Jason Harrises and the Steve Kings and the whole Salemi team. I want to be competitive and run against those type of guys because they’ re at the top of the chart.
What do you hope to accomplish in Pro Boost next season?
We’ re hoping to have the car ready for the start of the PDRA season. The goal is to race for the championship. That’ s everybody’ s goal and that’ s going to be my goal – go in there and try to race for the championship. We’ re going to show up with our game face on and enjoy the racetrack. It’ s a family-oriented place to be, but at the end of the day we compete to hold up that PDRA 660 Man at the end of the weekend and give a championship speech at the end of the year.
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Just making quick decisions and then trusting what your gut feels, not what the person on the outside of the car feels or what they see. It’ s OK to lift. My deal with football was,“ It’ s OK, everything’ s not going |
to be perfect,” but if you want to be really good at something, you just attack it, and that’ s what I do. I want to someday be a really good race car driver. The only way I can do that is keep getting better at |
making really good decisions like I did with my football career.
You’ ve already accomplished a lot in just a few races. What are your goals for the rest of the season?
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Cox thanked his team, family, friends, and partners like Menscer Motorsports, VP Racing, Diamond Pistons, LAT Racing Oil, Neal Chance Converters, and Straight Line Media. |
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60 PDRA660. com |