FONTANA, Calif. -- Thursday's opening day of the final session of Sprint Cup Preseason Thunder, at California Speedway, marked the completion of the first week that Bobby Labonte's new car chief, Raymond Fox, had spent working for Petty Enterprises on its No. 43 Dodge.

Twenty years and an even greater family legacy with Robert Yates Racing didn't keep Fox, the grandson of NASCAR legend Ray Fox, from realizing the future at Yates Racing wasn't for him.

"It was something that was hard for me to do -- but it was something I needed to do," Fox said Tuesday in a gloomy, cold garage area at Las Vegas Motor Speedway following his first two days of testing with Labonte and his new crew chief, former Hendrick Motorsports car chief Jeff Meendering.

"I still love [the Yates group] like family, I'd do anything for 'em and I know they'd do the same for me. Sometimes things change and it was a hard decision, that's all I can say. I don't know what I would have done different."

Raymond Fox, who began working at Robert Yates Racing basically right out of high school in the late 1980s, joined his father, Ray Fox Jr., an integral part of Yates' organization who died of natural causes shortly after being joined by his son at RYR.

In nearly two decades Raymond Fox had served in roles ranging from general mechanic to crew chief to car chief -- basically whatever was needed -- but a week ago he left to take the same car chief's position with the Pettys' two-car team, which is based in the shop that Yates previously occupied.

At the end of last season, Robert Yates retired and turned his team over to his son, Doug Yates, who renamed the team, formed an alliance with Roush Fenway Racing and brought in a co-owner, former Roush Fenway manager Max Jones.

Fox said he hadn't imagined working with Labonte any more than he had fantasized about what it would be like to work with Jeff Gordon or Jimmie Johnson. He was simply ready to get down to work -- and getting Petty Enterprises back to Victory Lane.

"You want to win with whoever you're with [and] if you get to wishing you're with Jeff Gordon, or somebody that you know is going to win, that's pretty easy, you know what I mean?" Fox said. "I'd just like to work hard and accomplish it, somewhere, somehow. If [winning] is going to be a little bit of a challenge, then when you do finally get there, it's well worth it."

The familiarity of his surroundings aside, Fox is enjoying his brief time with the Pettys, most of which has been on the road.

"The atmosphere here is wonderful and all the guys are great," Fox said. "Bobby's a great guy and it sort of got back to what you would call working with a veteran -- he knows what he wants and he can talk to the crew chief a little bit more and help the crew chief figure it out a little quicker."

Meendering might be in his first month as Labonte's crew chief, but he had a long tenure at Hendrick Motorsports, so Fox feels they're ready for Speedweeks. (read more)

"Jeff's new as a crew chief, but he came from the best place you could come from," Fox said. "He knows a lot of stuff and I think we work good together in what he's come to ask me about. I think the relationship's building and I think it's going to be good." (Continued)