Ron Cox (born July 12, 1966) is an American semi-retired professional stock car racing driver who competed in the ARCA Racing Series for twenty-three years, mainly driving for Hixson Motorsports.

Racing career

Cox would make his first attempt in the ARCA Permatex SuperCar Series in 1984 at the age of seventeen, failing to qualifying for the event at the Springfield dirt track. He would not return to the series until 1987, where he attempted three races and failed to qualify for two. In 1988, Cox only attempted Springfield again, but would fail to qualify. After three more years without making a start in the series, he would return in 1991 for the Talladega race in a No. 46 Chevrolet, where he would finish 26th. After another four years without making a start, he would make five starts through 1996 to 1998.

In 1999, Cox would run the full schedule in the now ARCA Bondo/Mar-Hyde Series for Hixson Motorsports in the No. 23 Chevrolet, where he would get four top-ten finishes with a best finish of seventh at the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds dirt track. He would finish eighth in the point despite failing to qualify for the season opening race at Daytona International Speedway on route to winning rookie of the year honors.^[1] In 2000, he would drop to eleventh in the standings, although he would get his first top-five finish at Kentucky Speedway with a fifth-place finish. In 2001, Cox would run the full schedule again, this time finishing fourth in the points with six top-ten finishes with a best finish of seventh at Winchester Speedway, Salem Speedway, and Berlin Raceway. For the following year, he would spend a majority in the year in the No. 23 for Hixson, while running four races in the No. 50 on his way to finishing ninth in the points that year. At the season ending event at Lowe's Motor Speedway, he would be withdrawn from the event after the death of teammate Eric Martin from a crash involving Deborah Renshaw during a practice session.^[2][3]

Cox would finish ninth in the points again in 2003, with seven top-tens and two top-fives with a best result of third at Berlin. His season was also notable due to being involved in a crash with Kyle Busch at the second Pocono Raceway event, where he would turn Busch into the inside wall heading into the first corner shortly after a restart late in the race.^[4] Cox would go on the finish 21st in the race, while Busch would be classified in 25th position. Cox would only run the first five races of 2004, earning a best result of sixth at Salem.^[5] He would run only six races in 2005, and would only run nine total races from 2006 to 2008, with a best result of ninth at Springfield in 2007 whilst driving for Bobby Gerhart Racing in the No. 5 Pontiac.

In 2009, Cox would run six races for Hixson, first driving the No. 57 Chevrolet for two races, although he was originally scheduled to drive the No. 23 at Salem, and then driving the No. 28 for his remaining races.^[6][7] At the event at Springfield, he would lead eleven laps on his way to finish second behind race winner Parker Kligerman.^[8] He would run five more races in 2010, getting a best result of tenth at Salem. In 2011, he would run fourteen of the nineteen races on the schedule, mainly driving the No. 28 for Hixson, although he would run one race in the No. 29 at Iowa Speedway. He would finish 17th in the final standings.

After making two starts in the series in both 2012 and 2014, Cox would return in 2017 at Iowa Speedway, driving the No. 3 Chevrolet for Hixson.^[9] He would finish 25th after running only six laps due to vibrations in the car. He has not competed in ARCA ever since.

Personal life

Cox currently serves as an industrial technology teacher as well as a weightlifting teacher at Sale Creek Middle/High School in Soddy Daisy, Tennessee.^[10][11] He has also served as a high school football head coach at the school, and prior to that, coaching the Soddy Daisy Middle School football team. He had founded the Sale Creek High School football program in 2012 and was the team's first coach.^[12] In the later years of his racing career, he would adorn the top of his drivers side window where his name would be with "Teachers Office".

Motorsports career results

References

External links

• Ron Cox driver statistics at Racing-Reference