Tyler Walker is returning to the Central Pennsylvania Sprint Car scene.

That's right, the 45-year-old former Kings Royal winner, who before May 31 hadn't raced in eight years, has struck a part-time deal with Wellsville, Pa.'s Rutherford Motorsports, car owner Ron Rutherford confirmed to FloRacing late Monday night.

The deal will see the Los Angeles, Calif., driver contest all 10 nights of Pennsylvania Sprint Speedweek presented Red Robin starting June 27 at Williams Grove Speedway and ending July 6 at Path Valley Speedway Park.

Rutherford, the fourth-year car owner and owner of MAMMA'S PIZZA of Wellsville who's totaled eight feature victories as an upstart team with Matt Campbell and Mark Smith, hopes to test with Walker before they take the track in less than two weeks.

"The guy definitely deserves it. What he’s done for the sport when he was sober and stuff, I feel like he definitely deserves a second chance. It might be his third chance, I don’t give two (craps) how many chances he’s had," Rutherford said in a phone interview with FloRacing late Monday night. "He’s at the point in life he knows he (f’ed) up and he’s willing to admit he (f’ed) up.

"That’s the first thing, is admitting he messed up. He knows what happened and I feel like it’s a great opportunity for him. I wanted to jump on board with it, and here we are.”

Rutherford says he's providing Walker with "several" brand-new Maxim Chassis and a stable of newly-built Don Ott Racing Engines.

The pizza-shop-operator-turned-car-owner primarily started his Sprint Car team in 2022 so his sons, now-21-year-old Tylar and 16-year-old Joey, can eventually launch their own racing careers. That's still the objective for Rutherford, who says that his deal with Walker is only shortterm.

“I asked my son (Tylar) if he was OK with it, and he went with it. He thinks it’s a great idea," Rutherford said. "Talked with Tyler, and he was more than grateful for the opportunity. This isn’t a longterm deal, this is a shortterm deal. Hopefully it leads to something for him longterm. Maybe it leads into something more for him with somebody else. 

Rutherford didn't rule out the possibility of the PA Speedweek deal leading more, only if enough funding comes to the table.

"I’m willing to do whatever Tyler wants to do as long as we have the funding," Rutherford said of potentially fielding entries for Walker beyond PA Speedweek. 

As far as what number Walker will drive, he’ll have a throwback look that Rutherford plans to unveil in the coming days. Walker's car will either be a throwback to the No. 10 Ratbag-sponsored days from the early 2000s — the same car from the Playstation 2-famous World of Outlaws: Sprint Cars 2002 video game — or his No. 35 days in Central PA from 2012.

At the height of his career as a twentysomething wunderkind in the mid-2000s, Walker was widely considered one of the greatest raw talents in open-wheel racing. He won the World of Outlaws Gumout Series title in 2002 as a 23-year-old over Shane Stewart, a season he won 11 of 20 events.

He won races all over the country — from his native California to Central PA, from a Knoxville Nationals prelim to Eldora Speedway's Kings Royal — and even earned a full-time NASCAR Truck Series ride in 2007 with Toyota Racing Development's Bill Davis Racing.

But off-track struggles, like an indefinite suspension from NASCAR for a failed drug test May 2007, piled up for Walker over the years, eventually pushing him out of racing altogether after the 2017 season.

Opening up more via social media on his pursuit toward soberness, Walker hasn't shied away from those off-track struggles that virtually drove him off the face of the earth for eight years.

"I have no monkey on my back anymore. I have no substances on me," Walker said in Monday's news-revealing interview with Chaz Thompson. "I can focus on my racing, I can focus on my time with my fans, my time with all my people out there that I love and that love me. I'm just really excited."

Walker summed up his deal with Rutherford as "a whole lot of goodness, a whole lot of miracles, a whole lot of blessings" and "a whole lot of fun and excitement."

"I'm so excited to get back there with my family, my racing family, and people who support me," said Walker, who drove full-time in Central PA from 2010-12 aboard Mike Heffner's No. 27 machine, the Keen Motorsports No. 17 and Sorokach-owned No. 35.

May 31 at Placerville (Calif.) Speedway is when Walker strapped back into a race car — a 360 Sprint Car among 410 competiton aboard Ashton Torgerson's No. 02. He finished eighth in the B-main that night, but returned to Placerville on June 7 to race a true 360 event, where he started 10th and finished 12th in a 26-car field.

He made another 360 start over the weekend at Ocean Speedway, finishing 10th from the sixth-starting spot in a 12-car field, a night where Walker said his "throttle stuck in the heat race and feature" as he "never really got to race."

Rutherford said he's been in conversations with Walker and his supporters the past few weeks, trying to sort of logistics and details for their would-be deal.

"I had someone reach out to me that brought it to my attention, and asked if I would ever do it. I said, ‘I would absolutely do it, 100 percent.’ Obviously I’m going to take some heat from some people," Rutherford said. "There’s going to be people who hate it. But I look at it this way, I think 90 percent of Pennsylvania is going to love it.

"They’re going to absolutely love it. They’re going to see somebody get an opportunity who probably thought there was no opportunity out there."

In watching FloRacing highlights of Walker's first night back in a Sprint Car in eight years, Rutherford had the impression that "I don’t think he missed a beat."

“His corner speed was amazing, he was just outnumbered by a 410 over a 360," Rutherford said. "It just looked so natural to the guy. That made me hyped about it.”

For Walker, he’s “just going to come out there and have a good time, see all my friends I haven't seen while I was in my dark hole of hell. I can come back into heaven” as he reunites “with all my friends.”

Rutherford suspects “it might take a race, it might take five races,” to get Walker comfortable, “but once he’s comfortable, I know for sure he’s going to be right there in the mix.”