Fuller using experience to help Furniture Row team (cont'd)

Fuller's NEMCO contacts also paid off last weekend during Craftsman Truck Series Preseason Thunder when he worked for three days spotting for old buddy Eric Phillips, the crew chief for Morgan Dollar Motorsports, which ran its first test with new driver Erin Crocker.

Road to Daytona

If it can get an engine program in place for a second car during Speedweeks 2008, Furniture Row Racing hopes to enter a second car for the Daytona 500 and give road racing veteran Max Papis a chance at his first Sprint Cup start.

"We're trying to get a second car [87] into the race with Max Papis, which would be sponsored by Denver Mattress," Doug Holbrook said.

"Right now we're kind of in limbo because the other day we found out we might not be able to get a motor for this deal, but we'll go from there and that's about all I can say."

Dave Rodman

"It worked into my schedule, because I was down here spotting for the Morgan Dollar truck," Fuller said after taking a break to sign a few autographs for fans Tuesday evening. "I've spotted just a little bit, like for Stanton Barrett. But I'd much rather be driving than spotting -- especially at a track like here or Bristol.

"Them spotters deserve every dime they get, because it's a little bit more intense than the average person thinks."

In no other sport can the participants go around and come around like they do in NASCAR. As long as you don't knock a hole in the wall -- or blow up a bridge -- the circle can continue.

Fuller's experience over the last five days is proof -- and he almost did the former in June of 2006, when he raced through Turns 1 and 2 at Kentucky Speedway in the Busch Series race on the fast, 1.5-mile oval and Jason Leffler spun in front of a pack of cars, including Fuller's No. 34 Chevrolet.

Fuller jerked the wheel hard to the left to miss Leffler's spinning car and was propelled at almost full speed into the track's inside wall, which at the time wasn't protected by a SAFER barrier. Although the crash looked like a clip from the imaginary "they didn't survive" series, Fuller only suffered a broken wrist and finger and was briefly hospitalized due to smoke inhalation.

"Oh yeah, I'm fine -- I'm as normal as I ever was," Fuller said with a laugh. "I don't know if that's saying much."

But Fuller's had a solid career, if you look at his log of short-track wins: his 1992 national Modified championship; the 1995 Busch Series rookie of the year title while racing ST Motorsports' No. 47 Chevrolet to 10th in the Busch driver standings; and his win from the pole a year later in Bristol's August Busch race.

He's also had a limited Cup career, with 13 starts to his credit, in addition to 184 career starts in what this season becomes the Nationwide Series.

"This season, just doing a little bit of testing here and there is all I've got going on," Fuller said. "But other than that I have no [driving] commitments."

But Fuller drew on his long history in the sport, from New England's short tracks to Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series venues coast-to-coast, when he said: "You know how this sport is -- anything can change, and in a hurry."