BLANEY Crew Member in All-Pro Title Chase; Does Double-Duty at LMS

JASPER MOTORSPORTS

UAW-GM 500 (LOWE'S MOTOR SPEEDWAY-10/13-02-RACE #31 OF 36)

#77 CREW MEMBER JEFF FULTZ ENLISTS HELP OF CO-OWNER HARRAH FOR DOUBLE DRIVING DUTY THIS WEEKEND AT CHARLOTTE, AS NASCAR ALL-PRO TITLE POSSIBILITIES LOOM AHEAD IN TWO WEEKS AT MEMPHIS

On the weekend before he attempts to win his first Hills Brothers NASCAR All-Pro Series championship in Memphis, JEFF FULTZ-full-time crew member for the #77 Jasper Engines & Transmissions Ford team-is attempting another daunting challenge as a driver, doing double-duty in both an ARCA and NASCAR Busch Series entry for the JCR-3 Racing Team at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte, N.C.

A series regular in neither division, FULTZ is neverthless hoping to defend his victory in the ARCA race at LMS in May with a win on Thursday night following NASCAR Winston Cup Series qualifying, as well as delivering a promising showing on the bigger Busch Series stage in the 300-mile Saturday event at LMS. With 50-plus entries for each race, FULTZ has enlisted for the weekend the technical help of #77 Jasper Motorsports co-owner MARK HARRAH-himself an engineer and the de-facto crew chief for FULTZ's ARCA victory in May in Charlotte.

In his quest for the 2002 NASCAR All-Pro title, FULTZ enjoyed a 101-point lead two weeks ago before finishing 13th and 11th, respectively, in races at Greenville-Pickens, S.C. and Kenley, N.C., while new leader David Reutimann won both events and moved ahead of FULTZ-who has finished in the top-five in the All-Pro points in each of the past three seasons including second in 2000-by five points entering the season-finale at Memphis on Saturday, October 19. 

A Cincinnati, OH. native, FULTZ brought 179 overall career wins and seven series championships into 2002 and has added All-Pro wins at Nashville and Myrtle Beach (as well as his ARCA win at LMS) this season, but the All-Pro championship has eluded him despite several close calls.

FULTZ ON ALL-PRO TITLE CHANCES.."This is the fourth time in seven years that I've been involved in the All-Pro Series championship run, and it does get a little nerve-wracking to go down to the wire. The pressure is on the driver, but more so on the crew. Teamwork is so vital in racing, and I'm sure our team will check every nut and bolt on the car when we get to Memphis. We weren't very good the last two races, but we'll go to Memphis and give it our best shot. If it's meant to be for us to win, then we will. All we can do is go for it again and hope it works out."

MARK HARRAH ON FULTZ, CHARLOTTE DOUBLE-DUTY.."Jeff's a hard worker for the #77 Jasper team every day in the shop, but I also believe in his talent as a driver, and I want to help him all I can in his ultimate career goal-and that is to race at the highest level he can. We won the race here in May, and I've made myself available to his team this weekend for both the ARCA and Busch Series entries they have, because all of us at the #77 shop want to see him achieve his dream. We do have some R & D things on the cars-which are built in our shop and are identical to the one's Dave (Blaney) drives-that could help us down the road with the Winston Cup team. But the real focus is Jeff. It's pretty phenomenal that guys like Jeff work 40-50 hour weeks in the shop, then chase bigger dreams on weekends. And the WC success stories of guys like Ernie Irvan and Mike Skinner-both of whom worked in raceshops when they first came to NC-show that those bigger dreams can come true. I hope these opportunities will bring Jeff a shot at an even better opportunity."

HARRAH ON THE #77 TEAM'S PROGNOSIS FOR CHARLOTTE..."Over the past month, we've tested at Charlotte and Kentucky (twice) in preparation for this final stretch of the season, not so much with only things specific to mile-and-a-half tracks, but to try and improve our communication between (Crew Chief) Ryan (Pemberton) and Dave (Blaney) and our team as to what we're really looking for once we get to the track and better directions for changes. We didn't qualify that well at Kansas, but we never ran a qualifying lap in all three tests. That wasn't our focus, and I think it showed when the race started at KC and Dave went right to the front. We had the problem and we'll never know what might have happened, but we were fast here in May (until pitting under green for a loose lug-nut) and we've made big strides in the second half of the season. I think we'll finish strong and be a factor at Charlotte this weekend."

  a.. DAVE BLANEY and the #77 Jasper Engines & Transmissions Ford team enter the UAW-GM 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway ranked 21st in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series owner standings, 64 points behind 19th-place Robbie Gordon, 25 points behind 20th-place Kevin Harvick; in the May race at Charlotte, Blaney started 14th (29.211 secs.) and finished 21st -both WC career-bests at LMS-running mid-pack until mid-race when he was forced to pit under green to tighten loose lug nuts, putting him two laps down at the finish; the #77 Jasper team has a best-start of sixth (Greg Sacks, 5/94) and a best-finish of 16th (Robert Pressley, 5/98) at Charlotte.
  a.. Among his 60 Busch starts, BLANEY has won six BGN pole positions (all in track-record time) including two at Charlotte (10/1/98 and 5/25/00); BLANEY's other Busch poles came at similar facilities to LMS, including Atlanta (3/13/99), Texas (3/27/99), Colorado Springs (7/23/99) and Michigan (8/19/99); he also has outside Busch Series poles at St. Louis (10/17/98) and Charlotte (10/7/99).
  a.. Jasper Motorsports co-owner MARK HARRAH will serve as Crew Chief for #77 team member JEFF FULTZ in this weekend's ARCA and Busch Series events at LMS; FULTZ, currently second in the NASCAR All-Pro Series standings with one race remaining (Memphis-10/19) in the 2002 season, won the ARCA event at LMS in May under HARRAH's direction.
  a.. BLANEY's season-best qualifying effort is third (Richmond 2), matching his WC career-best at Atlanta (11/01); his ninth-place finish at Richmond last month was his third top-ten of 2002, matching his season-best at California; his career-best WC finish is sixth (Texas, Michigan 2, Miami-- 2001); he finished 31st last weekend at Talladega, running a half-lap short on gas on his first pit-stop and losing a lap to the leaders which he never made up. 
  a.. After 30 races in the 2002 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season, BLANEY RANKS FIRST IN LAPS COMPLETED (8,502 of 8,641/98.4%) AND RANKS THIRD IN MILES COMPLETED (11,632.751 of 11,808.2/98.5%), trailing only Bill Elliott (98.9%.by 49.521 miles) and Jimmie Johnson (98.8%..by 35.675 miles); Rusty Wallace is the second Penske-Jasper Engine entry in the top-five (fifth) in both performance-reliability categories.
  a.. CREW CHIEF RYAN PEMBERTON become the third-youngest crew chief in NASCAR Winston Cup history to reach the $10 million mark in earnings, surpassing the mark last weekend at Talladega; Pemberton, 33 years, three months old, follows only James Ince, who reached the mark at age 31, seven months this June at Sears Point (in 182 career starts), and Frank Stoddard, who reached the mark at age 31, eleven months with a second-place finish at Texas in April, 2000; Stoddard reached the mark faster than any WC crew chief (74 races) with driver Jeff Burton; PEMBERTON began his WC career as a crew chief 198 races ago with driver Derrike Cope (1997), the first of eight drivers he has worked with over five-plus WC seasons.
  a.. Ryan Newman leads the three Penske-Jasper Engines entries in the 2002 Winston Cup standings in fourth-place (3,821 points-14 top-fives, 19 top-tens including his win at NH in July), 137 points behind leader Tony Stewart; Rusty Wallace (3,811 points) ranks fifth and is 172 points out of first; BLANEY and the #77 Jasper team rank 21st in the WC owners points (3,025 points); BLANEY ranked 24th entering the 31st-race of the 2001 season (at Talladega) in the #93 BDR Dodge.