Former NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion Rick Fuller
brought to a close one of the most successful driving careers in
the 24-year history of the tour with the announcement that he
has retired from racing.
Fuller, of Auburn,
Mass., made his NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour debut in the series’
inaugural race on March 31, 1985 at Thompson (Conn.)
International Speedway with a 13th place finish in the
Icebreaker. Ultimately, Thompson became the site of his last
race when was caught up in an early accident and came home 30th
in the No. 77 Toyota Certified Used Vehicles Modified in the
Xtra Mart World Series on Oct. 19.
Fuller compiled 20
wins, 145 top fives, 231 top 10s and 11 Coors Light Pole Awards
in 439 career NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour starts. His win total
ranks seventh in tour history.
Fuller got his
start in weekly series action. He won Late Model championships
at Westboro (Mass.) Speedway in 1980 and at Thompson in 1982.
Fuller later moved on to the Modified division where he captured
the Thompson track title in 1985.
“Early on in my
career, winning really wasn’t that big of an effort,” Fuller
said. “It wasn’t uncommon in the first few years that I started
out racing for me to win 30 or 40 feature events. Once I moved
solely into the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, it was a humbling
experience. To win just one or two races a year was huge. To
actually win the championship was a monster accomplishment.”
The highlight of
Fuller’s distinguished career was his championship season of
1993. A year after his brother, Jeff, had captured the title,
Fuller strung together a win and 14 top 10s in 17 starts to
finish 93 points ahead of Reggie Ruggiero for the crown.
As part of NASCAR’s
celebration of 60 Years of Modified Champions, Fuller was
honored at Thompson prior to the Sunoco Modified Mania 150 on
Sept. 7.
Fuller, voted the
series’ Most Popular Driver in 2000, is one of just three
drivers to have made starts in each of the first 24 years of the
NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour along with Carl Pasteryak and Jamie
Tomaino.
“The past couple of
years Toyota Certified Used Vehicles had the confidence to back
me in an attempt to run for another championship and I have to
thank them and the Curt Chase family for doing the same,” Fuller
said. “The championship I won in 1993 was with the No. 77 team,
and for them to have the confidence in me to make another run at
that meant an awful lot to me.”
While Fuller hasn’t
necessarily lost the drive to compete, there are a number of
reasons why 2008 became a good time to close the book on his
racing career.
Fuller has kids of
his own who are at the beginning of their racing careers, and he
has also started to turn his attention toward supporting them.
“I had a really
good run at this and I had a lot of fun, but right now I’m
looking at other opportunities in racing,” Fuller said. “My son,
Alex, is racing Quarter Midgets at the “Little T” at Thompson
and my daughter, Meghan, says she wants to start, and that will
probably occupy a lot of my time.”
While the 2008
NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season will be the last full-time
run of Fuller’s distinguished career, he didn’t necessarily
close the door on his availability for a spot start or part-time
ride in the future.
Source: Jason
Cunningham/NASCAR WMT PR
Posted:
November 12, 2008
