Former Southeast Championship Team Continues Pro Cup Chase As SES Opens
Jeff Fultz is a man who knows his way around a racetrack. A three-time champion of the NASCAR Southeast Series, this year Fultz and his JCR3 Racing team have set their sights on a different series by attempting to run the full season of the USAR Hooters Pro Cup, Southern Division.
Adjusting to a different series has not proved to be a problem for this past champion. His view on it is simple; it’s racing.
“We haven’t really had a lot of problems adjusting,” said Fultz. “The adjustment has been pretty easy for us. I think the problems we are having is we are just learning the different stuff, like the setup and the tires. You just drive a racecar. It doesn’t matter if it’s a truck or whatever. If it’s a racecar, you just adapt to what it needs.”
Peach State Speedway is a track that is familiar to the Hooters Pro Cup Series, but it’s a track that the NASCAR Southeast Series hasn’t raced at since the days when it was known as the All Pro Series. While Fultz may have been there before, he doesn’t really even remember that.
Fultz and the JCR3Racing team made their Pro Cup debut at South Georgia Motorsports Park.
“I think I raced there one time in All Pro; probably back in 1997 or so. I know I have been there. I used to live around there, but I just don’t remember racing there.
“We haven’t tested there, so it’s going to be kind of ‘cold turkey,’ like we have been so far this year at most of the tracks. What’s nice is that the Hooters Pro Cup people are really nice to work with and the tracks that we go to are my kind of tracks, like ones that we run all of the time.
“Right now a lot of races are like a test to get ready for the end of the year. We’re just trying to make up a lot of ground that we should have been doing months ago.”
The new tracks each week are not the only challenges that Fultz is finding in his first year in the Hooters Pro Cup Series.
“The competition is tougher,” added Fultz. “I think there are more competitive cars in the Hooters Pro Cup Series than the All Pro (now known as the NASCAR Southeast Series) had right there at the end. We were not getting but 15 or 20 cars each race (with the Southeast Series) and here in the Hooters Pro Cup, we have 30 tough cars and drivers. They are all pretty even, which makes it even harder.”
The Naturally Fresh 250 at Peach State Speedway will start at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 8th. The race will be televised on SPEED Channel at 5pm on Wednesday, April 12th.
For more information on Jeff Fultz and the JCR3 Racing team, please contact Jeremy Troiano at (704) 455-2051 or watch for a new JeffFultz.com coming soon.
