Bob Marcis never wanted the spotlight. Twenty years in NASCAR garages, and he was always the guy turning wrenches, not the guy in front of the camera. This week, the sport lost him.

Bob Marcis: Turned the Wrench and the Race Around With It

The former Cup Series crew chief died in June 2026. His vehicle was hit by a driver fleeing police in Forsyth County, North Carolina. He was 61.

Bob’s father, Don, was in Wisconsin and couldn’t make the trip south. He video-called to say goodbye. “I’ll miss his phone calls, happy birthday, happy Father’s Day, Merry Christmas, and all that. We talked a lot at least once a week,” Don told FOX8 WGHP. His brother Bill added one more detail that everyone held onto: when doctors ran a brain scan after the crash, they discovered Bob was still cancer-free. He had survived cancer – a true example of his indomitable spirit till the very end.

Bob was Dave Marcis’s nephew. And if you know NASCAR, you know Dave. The guy made 883 Cup Series starts over 35 years, still one of the highest totals ever. With five wins and being a runner-up to Richard Petty in ’75, he raced in black leather wingtip shoes, of all things, and built his own engines because that’s just how independent teams survived back then.

Bob was part of that survival story. “He went south, got a job with my uncle, worked for him, I’m thinking about 20 years,” Bill Marcis added.

During that time, Bob served as crew chief on the No. 71 from 1997 to 2002 — 66 starts, 36 laps led out of 16,601, an average finish of 33.4. Not flashy numbers. That wasn’t the job. The job was keeping an underfunded car on the track week after week.

Bob also turned wrenches for Dick Trickle, Andy Hillenburg, Tim Sauter, and Jay Sauter along the way. And here’s a fun detail: Dave Marcis used to test cars for Dale Earnhardt and Richard Childress Racing, and that relationship is part of what kept the family shop afloat financially.

And even at the end, he gave something. He was a registered organ donor, as confirmed by his family.

“I’m pretty proud of his decision to do that. It makes me feel good to know that he has given back. We’ve been given life, and he is giving it back to help others, so that’s something to be proud of,” Bill said. (via MyFox8)

Bob Marcis’s last job in racing was at RCR, working on suspension. He stepped away from the sport a couple of years back. That RCR connection was the first thing people latched onto.

“Wait he worked with RCR… someone please check on Richard,” one fan wrote, worried about how Childress himself was handling the news.

A lot of other responses were just simple and heartfelt. “Rest In Peace. Condolences to his family and friends.”

A few fans couldn’t help but notice a pattern. “Damn, we’re getting a lot of deaths this year.”

This year, we’ve lost the likes of Kyle Busch and Greg Biffle. Hence, one wrote, pushing back on anyone telling grieving fans to just get over it, because this year really has been brutal for the sport.

And then there were the ones thinking about Dave. “I feel bad for Dave Marcis,” someone wrote. And lastly, “May Bob rest in peace.”

Bob Marcis spent his whole career making other people’s cars go faster. Didn’t get much credit for it while he was doing it. Reading through these comments, it’s clear that people noticed anyway.