(EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first of a two-part series on Rixford, Pa. native Scott Fox, an NASCAR award-winning engine assembler for the highly-successful Hendrick Motorsports team.)
It’s a long way from Rixford, Pennsylvania to Charlotte, North Carolina … 625 miles to be exact.
And it’s even farther to go from a rural high school to being a key figure for the most dominating team in NASCAR.
But it’s a trip Scott Fox made successfully … and then some.
In 2013, he was tabbed NASCAR’s Engine Builder of the Year, the crowning honor of his 23 years with the Hendrick Motorsports team, which has become the highest standard in Cup racing.
How did it happen?
“AFTER graduation (from Otto-Eldred in 1982), I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life,” the 55-year-old Fox recalled. “But I went down to this technical school in Blairsville (Pa.), took a tour and I said, ‘I’m gonna do this.’
“My mom and dad (Dan and Pat), who have been so supportive, helped me get a loan and it all worked out. It was a two straight year course at Vale Tech, no summers off. I got an associate’s degree in automotive technology, taking every course but automatic transmission … paint, body, electrical, mechanical, suspension, brakes.”
The job search went quickly, as he was immediately hired by the now-defunct Star Garage in Bradford, until it closed. Then came a stint with Casey Cole and finally a position with Edmunds Chevrolet.
But Fox, who did his share of flat-bed tow-truck runs in the Southern Tier winters, opted to look for better weather.
“I KNEW ONE person in North Carolina,” he said. “I got a week’s vacation and, in 1988, a friend and I took mom and dad’s motorhome and we headed there to check it out.
“The people we stayed with let us use this beat-up Chevette. We drove around and got a job the first day we were there. My friend was about to graduate from Alfred, and we had to wait for that, and as soon as he did, we packed our tools in a truck with a U-Haul in the back and off we went.
“The money was good,” Fox admitted, “and I liked the climate, the city of Charlotte and the people that were there.”
“At the time my mom didn’t want me to leave, but she understood why I left. Her opinion of it has changed over the years and now she’s glad that I moved. But, at the time, I was still pretty young and it was a big step for me (though) it all worked out.”
FOX LOVED his job at a Chevy dealership and admitted, “I wasn’t really trying to get into racing, but I got close to some guys in it and they needed some help, so I quit the dealership and started at the bottom and worked my way up.
“When (driver, team owner) Alan Kulwicki got killed in a plane crash flying into Bristol in 1993, Geoff Bodine took over the team and I worked in his shop for three years. But he closed in 1997 and I was out of work for a while.”
He remembered, “Then, Hendrick Motorsports called me and I had an interview with them. I told myself, ‘If I don’t get (the job) over there — I knew they were stable and a good organization to work for — then I was going back to the dealership.’
“But, lo and behold, they hired me on Jan. 2 1998, and I started working at tear-down, worked there for five years as a manager, then moved up. Everything went really well and they moved me into the engine shop next. Around 2008, I got moved into assembly and never looked back.”
Nor should he have.
Promoted to the engine department, Fox achieved a career pinnacle with the Engine Builder of the Year Award.
As he recalled, “My wife and I flew out to Las Vegas in Mr. Hendrick’s plane, got up on stage and did the whole awards thing and that was pretty cool.”
“Cool,” indeed.
(Tomorrow: Working for Hendrick Motorsports)
