Page 7 - Drag Racing Magazine

Jay Cox is an interesting guy and always into something. When I called him to talk about his Pro Mod win at the Snowbirds Outlaw Nationals at Bradenton Motorsports Park, Jay answered his phone and he sounded as if he was doing some very imporant work.. “Hey, can I call you back buddy, I’m kinda busy with something right now?” Jay, good to his word, must have solved his problem because he called me back within an hour and was ready to talk about his fun week at Bradenton. What About Your Win Over Tommy Gray in the FInals at the Snowbirds Outlaw Nationals? All we really had probably was a number or two on Tommy Gray. Tommy missed it a little bit in the finals. I figured he’d run a 3.65. They missed it just a little bit. He was a 3.66 in the daytime. And we were set up to go 3.65. It was good man, anytime you can go down there and test and bring home a little money, that’s always nice. How Do You Prepare? What’s Your Game Plan, Especially Going Into a Final Round? I try to keep it simple. You race these guys all year. If you are not racing them, they are running at the same track. You know what their capabilities are and what they are going to run. I kind of look at 2 things, I look at what’s this guy going to run and what will my lane give me or allow me to run. If I got a guy who can run 3.65, and he just got more power than me and my lane and my car can only give me 3.67, I have to make up 2 numbers somewhere. And the only place I can make it up is on the tree. I don’t play no games, I just look at those 2 things. What will my guy run and what will my lane give me. Any Thoughts About The Track Conditions at BMP? That race tracks fast down there, that’s a good thing about it. Jimmy Bradshaw has done a killer job prepping it and that track is just really, really fast. What Can You Tell Us About Your Drag Racing Plans for Next Season? We are going to focus on PDRA and outlaw races, Shakedown in Va and the Yellow Bullet, that it will be about it. We are going to run a pretty slim schedule this year. I need to focus on work. Work is getting bigger and bigger and busier and busier and I just need to focus on that for a while. We’ll run 8 PDRA races, Shakedown and Yellow Bullet. Any Changes to Pumpkin in The Off Season? I’m sticking with the same stuff; what we got. Give it our best shot. I feel we have a 1 or 2 or 3 car in Pro Nitrous. The first 2 or 3 cars, we are all together there within a few thousandths of each other. The biggest thing with me that causes me the most, the thing that costs me the most races is parts failure, we had a lot of parts failure in the past. If I can get that cut out we can do a pretty good job next year. Any Words Of Wisdom For Stevie Jackson? If he wants me to, I’ll come over there and give him a tail whipping! I’m racing where I want to race. I’ve had offers to race NHRA, but I like this outlaw style racing, PDRA, that’s what I like to do. I can talk a little junk and be myself and say what I want to say. That’s just me. Five Minutes with Jay Cox JAN - feb 2020 DRAG RACING MAGAZINE 7 Five Minutes with Jay Cox MOTORSPORTS RACING MEDIA