Three-time NASCAR Southeast Series Champion, USAR Pro Cup Standout, former ARCA RE/MAX Series, NASCAR Busch North Series and NASCAR Busch Series competitor.
Those are all things that you can call Jeff Fultz. After this weekend, there is another title that can be added to the list too – Snowball Derby competitor.
Fultz, who has raced just about everything and everywhere on the East Coast, finished seventh in his first Snowball Derby this past weekend at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida. Fultz drove the #4 Super Late Model for car owner Curtis Venable.
“It was my first Derby,” said Fultz. “I’m just happy to come here and be able to participate. Curtis called me and asked me to drive the car. He brought three of them to try and get all of them into the show. We had a really good car. We just had an up and down day. We couldn’t figure out the pit strategy; when to come in and when not to. Seems like no one knew because no one could tell us.”
Fultz was fortunate enough to stay on the lead lap during a rare late-race stretch of green flag competition and claim his top-10 finish.
“We had a great car the first part of the run. We got up there and got into the top-10. We came in and pitted and had a great pit stop. That set of tires then was so bad that we just had to ride it out. The car was really tight.
“Then we put the third set on and Joe (Shear Jr, Fultz’s crew chief) made a bunch of adjustments that we probably wouldn’t have had to made, had we not had that bad set of tires. The car was then really free. But we came back up through there. With about 60 or 70 laps to go there, he said to just go get all you can and then we’d put our last set on and we’d be pretty good. So I went with Clay [Rogers] and Bobby [Gill] and the 66 car [Steve Wallace] and got up through the field. Well, we never had another caution and we ended up burning the tires off the car. We expected a caution and never got it.”
After considering his first Snowball Derby a success, Fultz plans to
be back again for the event.
“I think the Derby is really neat,” said Fultz. “It is a fun race. It is a
strategy race, but it’s a fun race. I love the racetrack. I could really
go. I was amazed when they dropped the green. I was excited to
come here. I had a lot of fun. Next year, we’re going to come more
prepared. We want more of a heads up.
“Curtis only has one full-time guy and a bunch of guys that help.
They built this car in two weeks from a bare chassis. I went up and
put my seat in Sunday and we came down here to race. I would
just love to have more time and prepare even more to make it easier
on Curtis and all of his guys.
“We got into the show the first time here and I’m happy about that. We got a top-10 so I couldn’t ask for any more.”
For more information on Jeff Fultz and the JCR3 Racing team, please contact Jeremy Troiano at (704) 455-2051 and be sure to check out the JeffFultz.com website.
