You may not know who Ray Cooper was, but if you are a devoted race fan, you sure knew his work.

Ray, or "Coop" as all who knew him called him, was a part of the racing community for pretty much his whole life. He was an award-winning writer and journalist and most recently a manufacturer's representative for Dodge Motorsports.

Ray was one of those guys who was just always a part of the scene, someone you kind of took for granted you'd see at the next stop on the NASCAR tour and a fixture in the media center at every race weekend.

It's hard to believe that in such a short period of time, he's no longer with us, losing his battle with cancer Friday night.

What's even harder to swallow is how someone can be gone in almost an instant, and that was certainly the case with Ray. He sat with our table during one of the dinner stops on last January's annual NASCAR Media Tour in Charlotte, was at every race I covered in the first half of the season and then suddenly, he was gone.

His illness stopped him from going on the road in mid-summer and here it is, only ten months from when he sat and laughed with a group of us media types on the tour, he's gone.

Our thoughts and prayers are with his family. And his memory is another reminder to us all to cherish those who are close to us in this life, whether they be family, friends or just "another" member of the racing community.