HIGH POINT, N.C. (WGHP) — A man known as a legend in the racing community has passed away.

FOX Sports announcer Phil Parsons took to X on Thursday morning, writing “It’s with a heavy heart that I write about the passing of Tex Powell. I met Tex when I was 12 years old and he was working with BP at L G Dewitt’s. He was the first person that believed I could be a race car driver. He built my first race car and taught me how to work on them.”

He goes on to describe Powell as one of the smartest people he’d ever known. Powell was a carmaker, called “one of the greatest car makers of all time” in an obituary published by Essentially Sports.

People have taken to social media to react to the passing of the legend, “RIP Tex Powell, a great figure in the NASCAR garage for decades. Tex worked for the Pettys in the 70s. He built the Camaro that Terry Labonte won the GTO class in the 1984 Rolex 24. He was AJ Foyt’s crew chief in the 80s and 90s.”

In 2019, Powell worked with Richie Barsz on restoring the Ford GT that won at Le Mans, the race dramatized in the film “Ford v. Ferrari.”