Lynn Phoenix's no. 14 Chevrolet

ALL IN THE FAMILY

Phoenix Racing is the definition of a true race team

JW Martin

Some teams are supported by corporate sponsors. Other teams are backed by big names. But for at least one team competing at Motor Mile Speedway, racing is simply a family affair.

No big backers. No hired hands. When the number 14 Late Model Chevrolet takes the checkered flag at the Radford short track, all in the family have contributed to the finish.

Meet Team Phoenix Racing.

Tony Phoenix is the general mechanic and crew chief and spearheads the operation with the help of brother Bruce Phoenix, when Bruce’s work schedule allows. Lynn, the youngest of the three Phoenix siblings is the driver, and when the 38-year-old veteran takes to the track brother-in-law Bill Grady spots for him. Grady’s son Chad helps as well. In fact, the only crewmember on the team that isn’t related is Bobby Bryant, an electrical specialist who works for Lynn’s family business, which also happens to be the primary sponsor on the racecar.

“It’s a family deal,” says Tony. “We don’t have any pressure; we just race for the fun of it.”

If NASCAR is a family sport, then Phoenix Racing personifies the essence of stock-car racing.

The team was the brainchild of Lynn, who formulated the idea to start a race team while on a family outing to Galewinds Amusement Park in Wytheville, Va. The boys were racing go-karts when Lynn outlined the improbable scheme.

“I tried my best to talk him out of it,” Tony recalls. “But he was just all for racing.”

The men took the idea back to their hometown in Shawsville, Va., where they acquired a Late Model from a fellow competitor. That winter, Phoenix Racing was born and a tradition began.

“Every winter the guys will get together, and we’ll build a new body, roll our sheetmetal…we’ll do it all,” Tony explains. “It’s sort of a satisfaction being able to build our own car and come up here and run good with it.”

The number 14 Phoenix Trucking and Drywall Chevrolet has competed in the Late Model division at Motor Mile Speedway since 2003. It wasn’t until the 2006 season that the team finally began to see the results of their hard work, however. That year, for the first time since the team’s inception, the number 14 Chevrolet finished in the top ten in the standings, with two top fives and seven top tens. The team followed up the banner season by recording a seventh place finish in the overall standings in 2007. And this year, backed by one top five and nine top tens, the Phoenix Racing team finished eighth in the track standings and thirteenth in the state standings.

“You know, there are some big-time teams here. There’s 20 teams up here that could go anywhere in the country and win. So it’s very gratifying for us to be able to finish in the top 10 and knock on the top five every now-and-then. It feels real good,” Tony says.

Passion, pride and persistence has kept the Phoenix team a fixture in the MMS garage since the first time they towed from Shawsville at the start of the ’03 season. The team’s personality has garnered them a legion of loyal fans and their perseverance has kept them on the track for six years, despite no major funding. In fact, the addition of sponsorship from Today’s Auto –a business based in the team’s hometown- earlier this season was the team’s first outside financial supporter.

Without substantial sponsorships, the Phoenix team doesn’t have the finances to outsource their work. However, they have enough capital to afford the recourses to do it themselves. From the engine to the crush panels, the team builds, installs and repairs everything on the number 14 Chevy.

“If we had to farm out all our work, we couldn’t do it,” Tony says.

As an example worthy of mention, the team can freshen their own motor for $1,500. To take the same motor to a major builder would cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $5,500.

Tony estimates it costs his team a minimum of $700 to $1,000 a week to race at the Radford oval, and he notes that most teams will spend more than that on tires and a paid crew alone.

“Nobody here is paid,” Tony says. “All they get is plenty to eat.”

The costs of competing competitively at a major racing venue like Motor Mile Speedway continue to escalate. For under-funded teams like the Phoenix organization, the hardship is magnified. So why attempt it?

“The reason we got started was to get all the family together, and it’s worked real good,” says Lynn Phoenix, the wheelman of the number 14 Chevy.

Although the number 14 team has proven they can be competitive, the Phoenix Racing team has yet to win at Motor Mile Speedway in the Late Model division. But they may have already claimed victory. It all depends on why a team is racing.