Black Cloud Of Rain Follows Fultz To Iowa Speedway

If cartoons suddenly became real life, then the guy who always has the rain cloud pouring down water on his head while the rest of the world enjoys the sunshine’s name would be Jeff Fultz. No matter how hard he and the JCR3 Racing team prepare for a USAR Hooters Pro Cup race, bad luck always seems to follow the #54 machine. Even with a couple extra weeks of preparation for the opening race of the 2006 Pro Cup “Four Champions” Championship Series at the new Iowa Speedway, the team could not shake the bad luck spell.

Of course, once again, the bad luck was none of their own doing. Saturday’s race was the first-ever event at Iowa Speedway and tire problems bit not just Fultz’s team, but seemingly every other team in the garage area. Two tire issues early in the race forced Fultz to drop several laps after green-flag pit stops. Undeterred, Fultz rallied to make up all but one of them to finish 21st.

“We had a really good car,” said Fultz. “We had a new crew chief with Gary Crooks and Jefferson from (Dale Earnhardt) Junior’s (#88 Pro Cup) team working together. We hoped that would get things going the right way. We had motor problems and had to change motors in practice. They were having such a problem with tires, they cancelled practice, so we didn’t get much practice with the new motor at all so with the new motor and a different gear, we didn’t qualify too good.

“When the green flag came out though the car just took off and was going really good, but the tires started coming apart for everybody. We passed a lot of cars and got up there real quick then a tire let go. We came in under green and fixed it and got back up. That happened twice. It was early in the race when it happened, so we changed our strategy to just get our laps back.

“We ended up working hard to get three laps back. We were getting back up the field again when the right rear blew. The tires were the biggest issue, but we had a really good car. We just didn’t get a chance to show it.”

Fultz and the JCR3 Racing team have two weeks to prepare for Jennerstown Speedway’s Championship Series race on September 30th, where he hopes that his luck will finally turn around.