Like many boys, young Joe Lax Jr. looked for every opportunity he could find to race things with his friends. Sleds, marbles and even each other - it didn’t matter. But what excited Lax most was tearing things apart, examining the mechanics and trying to put them back together. Lawn mowers in his hometown of Gumspring, Va., weren’t safe from the scrutiny of the young Lax, and by the time he was 13 years old, he had figured out a way to reassemble most everything and make it run.
During his teenage years, time spent with buddies meant working on cars and, more importantly, making them go faster. Lax spent his high school years hanging out and working on racecars at the local Southside Speedway in Midlothian, Va., before turning his attention to both racing and developing his mechanical skills on four wheel drive trucks throughout the East coast and Virginia. However, Lax never planned on making racing a career, and after graduating from Goochland High School, he studied engineering at a Richmond-area junior college while working for his father in the plumbing and construction business.
Lax decided to join the U.S. Coast Guard when he was 21 and spent more than four years stationed all over the world. He started out on an Icebreaker named Polar Star, and his first assignment in the engineering department took him to the South Pole. After that, he traveled to the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico on the Coast Guard Cutter Escape.
Next up for Lax was the opportunity to attend engineering and weapons school in Yorktown. Va., before he headed back overseas to a LORAN-C facility on Lampedusa Island, Italy. His last move came when he was reassigned to a lifeboat station in Oregon Inlet, N.C., to concentrate on search and rescue and law enforcement.
Racing Becomes a Way of Life
After leaving the Coast Guard, Lax returned to Richmond and worked for a company called Stock Car Products. During that time, Lax built race cars and worked on several Late Model teams around North Carolina. In 1990, Lax went to work for Junie Donlavey before heading to Don Beverly Racing, then with A.G. Dillard as a fabricator, mechanic and tire changer. Dillard’s team shut down after the 1995 season, so Lax spent 1996 building sports cars to run in the IMSA Series and serving as crew chief for Larry Clement’s ARCA Series operation.
Following that endeavor, Lax returned to Donlavey’s organization in 1997, where he first became acquainted with Tommy Baldwin Jr. After spending two years there, Lax was offered the opportunity to serve as crew chief for a NASCAR Nationwide (formerly Busch) Series team at Joe Bessey Racing and also as shock specialist for the team’s NASCAR Cup Series program.
Lax made the move to Bill Davis Racing for the 2000 season and served as the shock specialist for its Nationwide Series lineup. After four years in that capacity, he decided to join Hendrick Motorsports’ Nationwide Series team and driver development program. He remained there until the end of the 2005 season.
Lax joined Robert Yates Racing’s Nationwide Series team in 2006, where he reunited with Baldwin. Halfway through the season, he and Baldwin returned to Bill Davis Racing. Lax served as the shock specialist for the No. 36 team in 2007 before spending part of the season acting as crew chief for that program. In addition, Lax called the shots for driver Michael Annett in the fall ARCA RE/MAX Series race at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. Not only did the duo qualify for the event in the top spot, but Annett, in only his fourth start in the Series, drove his Toyota Camry to victory.
Changes for 2008
Lax will begin a new chapter this season as he embarks on a season concentrating on the driver development program at BDR. Lax will lead the charge for newcomer Michael Annett as he competes in at least 10 races in the ARCA/REMAX Series and in several NASCAR Nationwide Series events throughout the season.