Fletcher Cox bounces back to sweep Pro 10.5 title and event win

BY NATE VAN WAGNEN

Fletcher Cox came into the DI Winter Series finale, the World Series of Pro Mod, with something to prove. The Super Bowl champion’ s holeshot loss at the U. S. Street Nationals – and the reaction it generated online – didn’ t sit right with Cox, and he was determined to bounce back in a big way. He did exactly that, securing the inaugural Winter Series Pro 10.5 championship and the WSOPM win in his nitrous-fed“ Training Day”’ 69 Camaro.

In the second round of the U. S. Street Nationals, the typically consistent Cox left the line with a. 441 reaction time. Tuner Phil Shuler armed him with a 3.904-second pass to chase down Nick Agostino, but Agostino’ s starting line advantage and 3.931 were too much to overcome. Critics chirped online in the days following the race, but Cox and his team were already moving on and focusing on WSOPM.

“ I talk to Phil a lot on a personal level. The deal is, if you entertain the clowns, you become part of the circus,” says Cox, who entered WSOPM third in points.“ So you don’ t entertain nothing that’ s going on on the internet. You block it out and you move on. The team, they already know that we win together, we lose together; whether it’ s the driver’ s fault, or as a crew member or a crew chief, that we made a mistake, we made the wrong call. But there’ s nobody to blame, and that’ s how we do it. We have fun with it. We take our blows under the chin every time, and that’ s why I have the team that I’ ve got.”

In WSOPM qualifying, Cox saved his best pass for last, throwing down a 3.876 at 190.27 in Q3 to qualify No. 2 behind Jerry Morgano. It was also his best qualifying effort of the Winter Series after qualifying No. 4 at the Snowbird Outlaw Nationals – where he raced to a runner-up finish – and No. 3 at the U. S. Street Nationals.

When eliminations rolled around, it was obvious Cox wasn’ t going to let anything or anyone get in his way. He posted low E. T. of the first round, a 3.906 at 190.14, to defeat J. R. Webb, then followed that with a 4.038 at 190.46 to knock out 2025 WSOPM runner-up Chris Tuten in the second round. Cox ended up with the bye run in the third round, where he lifted to a 5.500.

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