Athletes who are great at their chosen game often find ways to stay involved and continue to compete at a high level far past the average age of their competitors. This weekend, Jeff Fultz, arguably super late model racing’s Brett Favre will climb back behind the wheel at Myrtle Beach Speedway for the CARS Response Energy Tour $10,000-to-win Baker Distributing 200.
Fultz is no stranger to Myrtle Beach Speedway. In fact, he won the last three super late model races in which he competed at the facility, all of which were sanctioned by NASCAR under the Southeast Series banner, formerly known as All-Pro. More recently, he competed there in a modified with a chance to win before a cut tire ruined his strategy.
“I’ve always loved the slick racetracks where you can slide around,” Fultz said. “Myrtle Beach and Greenville are definitely two of the places I love and always enjoy going. We ran a modified race there not too far back and made up three laps, ran fifth or sixth until those guys took tires and we didn’t have any left. Plus, this is a CARS Tour race, and we really like to support what Jack and Chris have going on when we get the chance.”
The car Fultz will be piloting is also no stranger to Myrtle Beach or the CARS Tour. Walker Motorsports has fielded an entry for A.J. Frank each time the tour has visited the Grand Strand and the team has ProCup experience at the facility, too. The No. 54 Furniture by Walker Chevrolet will pay homage to Fultz’s All-Pro days when he raced the number to wins and championships, including his success at Myrtle Beach Speedway.
“It’s hard to believe this is our first race together,” said Chris Walker of Walker Motorsports. “We’ve been friends for years, but Fultz wanted to run Myrtle and everything worked out with his schedule at Fury. He even wanted to run the No. 54, so we made that happen, too.”
Long-time fans may remember Fultz’s successes in All-Pro and other super late model competition. After racing in All-Pro, he competed with success in the Hooters ProCup Series, the tour which eventually became the CARS Response Energy Tour. Despite different teams, numbers and paint schemes, his upbeat personality and engaging smile have drawn in fans for most of his career.
Since semi-retiring from the driver’s seat, Fultz has become extremely active in the Fury Racecars chassis program as a consultant, crew chief, and veteran driver coach. Some have labeled him the Brett Favre of super late model racing because no matter how long he waits between rides, he is always competitive. Though his sponsor, Furniture by Walker, provides a wide assortment of living room and bedroom furniture, including rocking chairs, don’t expect Jeff to order one yet.
“I wouldn’t say I’ve retired by any means,” Fultz said while cracking a smile. “I just don’t get to race as much as I’d like with everything we have going on at Fury. I don’t like competing against a lot of our customers, plus they often need us at the track, so that makes it hard to pick races to run. I don’t want to have an effect on their success because I’m at the track competing, too. It just all worked out this weekend to come to a place I love and I feel like I have a shot to win if everything goes right.”
“If all goes well, we’ll be back and doing this more in the future,” said car owner Walker. “We recently sold one of our chassis, and now we have a brand new Fury car to go attempt to win races with. With Fultz behind the wheel, I feel like we have as good of a shot as anyone to win. I hate he can’t run every race for us, so we’ll be looking for drivers to run the ones he doesn’t, but we know when we unload we have a shot to win.”
The Baker Distributing 200 presented by Honeywell at Myrtle Beach Speedway is the second event on the calendar for the 2018 CARS Response Energy Tour. It marks the first time super late models have hit the track and offers $10,000 to the winner of the race with some of super late model racing’s biggest names expected to compete, including Fultz and Walker. Broadcast LIVE on carstour.tv., the event takes the green flag at 3:30pm ET with FiveStar Bodies Knockout Qualifying at 2:00pm.
RACE22.com will have RACEDAY LIVE presented by Furniture by Walker starting at 10:00am.
