Jeff Stec is an
entrepreneur
Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones.
An entreprene ...
and
NASCAR
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...
team owner.
He was a member of the Mu Tau chapter of
Kappa Sigma
Kappa Sigma (), commonly known as Kappa Sig or KSig, is an American collegiate social fraternity founded at the University of Virginia in 1869. Kappa Sigma is one of the five largest international Fraternities and sororities in North America, fr ...
fraternity, and graduated from
Austin Peay State University
Austin Peay State University (APSU) () is a public university in Clarksville, Tennessee, United States. Standing on a site occupied by a succession of educational institutions since 1845, the precursor of the university was established in 1927 ...
in 1993 with degrees in exercise science and business management. He soon worked his way up through the ranks and formed
Peak Fitness in the
Charlotte area in 1999 and began expanding it into a national
fitness club
A health club (also known as a fitness club, fitness center, health spa, weight room and commonly referred to as a gym) is a place that houses exercise equipment for the purpose of physical exercise.
In recent years, the number of fitness an ...
franchising
Franchising is based on a marketing concept which can be adopted by an organization as a strategy for business expansion. Where implemented, a franchisor licenses some or all of its know-how, procedures, intellectual property, use of its busines ...
company early in 2005.
In 2005 Stec also purchased SCORE Motorsports to field the #66
Ford
Ford commonly refers to:
* Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford
* Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river
Ford may also refer to:
Ford Motor Company
* Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company
* Ford F ...
sponsored by Peak Fitness, with
Hermie Sadler
Herman Marion Sadler III (born April 24, 1969) is an American professional stock car racing driver and broadcaster, businessman and politician.
He competed in NASCAR as a driver from 1992 to 2019. In the late 2000s and the 2010s, he scaled back ...
and
Mike Garvey
Michael Garvey (born September 13, 1962) is an American professional stock car racing driver who currently works as a crew chief in the NASCAR Xfinity Series for DGM Racing's No. 90 Chevrolet Camaro. As a driver, he competed in NASCAR and the Ame ...
running the car.
In the 2006 season, the Peak Fitness Racing team changed numbers from #66 to #61 to allow
Haas CNC Racing
Haas CNC Racing was an American professional stock car racing team that competed in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR Busch Series. Founded in 2002 by Gene Haas, the founder of Haas Automation, the team was established after Haas—then a sp ...
to use the #66 for their
Best Buy
Best Buy Co., Inc. is an American multinational consumer electronics retailer headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota. Originally founded by Richard M. Schulze and James Wheeler in 1966 as an audio specialty store called Sound of Music, it was r ...
Sponsorship. The team also tabbed
Kevin Lepage
Kevin Paul Lepage (born June 26, 1962) is an American former professional stock car racing driver, who last drove in NASCAR in 2014.
Racing career
Early career
Lepage spent the 1980s driving in both the Busch North series and the Vermont-based ...
for the 2006 season driving duties. In the first quarter of 2006 Stec sold the #61 team to
Front Row Motorsports
Front Row Motorsports (FRM) is an American professional stock car racing team that currently competes in the NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. The team began running part-time in 2004 as Means-Jenkins Motorsports under a part ...
.
Lawsuits and Bankruptcy
In April 2008, Jeffrey R. Stec was listed as a defendant in a lawsuit against Peak Fitness by North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper. Stating that Stec and Peak Fitness engaged in a pattern of deceptive conduct, deceptive advertising, instructing sales personnel to misrepresent contract terms and club closings.
In April 2009, Jeff Stec confirmed that locations in Raleigh and Cary, North Carolina will be closed by the end of June 2009. A subsidiary of Stec's Peak Fitness filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy, citing between $500,000 and $1 million in debt.
In June 2011, Stec was formally charged with Loan fraud for intentionally filing for and attempting to use close to 1 Million dollars for a luxury home. In addition, he applied for almost 4 Million Dollars from Wells Fargo to build health clubs stating he was the owner of the parent group of Peak Fitness when he was not. Documents claim Stec alone cost Wells Fargo over $250,000 while also causing Wachovia to lose 2.7 Million Dollars.
External links
Peak Fitness*
References
Austin Peay State University alumni
Living people
NASCAR team owners
Year of birth missing (living people)
{{NASCAR-bio-stub