The entire NASCAR community was deeply saddened by the untimely death of Joe Gibbs Racing icon Martin Truex Jr’s former partner Sherry Pollex. She is best known for her fight against Cancer. Let’s take a deeper dive into why Pollex is celebrated in the NASCAR world.
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Pollex’s introduction to NASCAR
Pollex’s father Greg used to race Late Models at dirt tracks in Michigan. Later, he founded PPC Racing, a team that competed primarily in what we know today as the Xfinity Series. The team won the 2000 championship with Jeff Green.
Back when Pollex was in middle school, Pollex and her family moved to Florida. Later she went to Florida State University and there, she earned a degree in Sports Marketing. It was then that she landed with a marketing firm that had accounts in NASCAR.
Sherry Pollex met the JGR speedster when the latter was climbing up the stairs of the Xfinity Series. Together, the duo used their respective platforms for their philanthropic activities. Pollex founded the Catwalk for a Cause in 2010 and the charity and fashion crossover brought NASCAR together in fighting cancer.
Pollex and her former partner Martin Truex Jr. were nominated as the recipients of the National Motorsports Press Association’s Myers Brothers Award for outstanding contributions to stock car racing in 2017. She received the award again in 2023, but sadly, it was a posthumous honor.
She was a beacon of light to all. 💗
Sherry Pollex was posthumously named the recipient of the 2023 NMPA Myers Brothers Award. pic.twitter.com/nPVTH2FBRm
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) December 4, 2023
Sherry Pollex’s battle against pediatric cancer
Her Sherry Strong Foundation focused on aiding children and families suffering from pediatric cancer. Pollex was a cancer survivor herself. A CT scan revealed that she had stage 3 ovarian cancer in 2014. Four weeks later, Pollex began her chemotherapy. Even then, her spirit was as indomitable as ever.
In 2019, Pollex told The Athletic’s Jeff Gluck, “I wake up every day and just have so much gratitude and joy for this life that I’m living, even though I have a chronic illness. And it’s so hard. People ask me all the time: ‘I don’t get it. How do you stay so positive and how are you happy all the time when you have Stage 3C ovarian cancer?'”
“And I wake up every day and just think this life is amazing. If you look around you, there’s so much positivity and there’s so much beauty in this earth. The people who want to make a difference and want to inspire each other — there is a lot of us if you look for us,” she added.
Sherry Pollex’s contribution to the cause of fighting the deadly disease has made her legacy a lasting one. She told Gluck, “It’s maybe not what I would have chosen for myself — nobody really wants to be the poster child for any type of cancer — but maybe I’m supposed to go through all this so I can pave the way for other women. On some days, that can be a really hard pill to swallow. But on other days, it’s like, ‘You know, I’ve been given this really important role in this life.'”
