"I Still Believe in Santa Claus" ~ Jimmy Spencer
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As promised last week on Twitter, here is a closer look at the guy we
call “Mr. Excitement.” This article was first offered on the pages of Insider
Racing News on August 30, 2003. If anything within appears outdated, that’s
why. I did adjust Jimmy’s age forward, but all else is intact as written, 14
years ago.
I bid you welcome, gentle readers, to another in our
series of tales from the middle of the pack, as it were. It’s long been my
thought that without 43 drivers on the track, there would be no race, so I ask
you not to overlook the important role they play in our weekend pastime, those
drivers that seldom if ever visit Victory Lane. Unfortunately, not all of the
drivers are members of multi-car, multi-dollar teams, but if they are racing at
the Cup level, they got there through their racing talent. Each one of them has
friends, family and fans, and every driver on the track is worthy of our
respect.
Today, your scribe has chosen to share a bit about a
racer for whom we've had a few requests… the man they call, “Mr.
Excitement", Jimmy Spencer.
Last I knew, Jimmy Spencer resided in Huntersville,
N.C., with his wife Pat, but that’s quite a distance from where he started in
life. Jimmy was born on February 15, 1957 in the tiny town of Nanticoke
Pennsylvania. If you’re counting, that means he’s 60 years old today. He grew up in Berwick Pennsylvania, which at
that time was a long way from NASCAR country. It’s become common knowledge that
his father Ed [Spencer Sr.] owned and ran a junkyard, a fact that from time to
time has inspired joking comments about the meanness of a junkyard dog. I’m
sure that Jimmy has heard them all and that all they succeed in eliciting is
that boyish grin that makes a grown man resemble an impish ten-year old.
That Boyish Grin
He came by his love of racing and his talent for it
quite honestly, since Ed, better known in racing circles as "Fast
Eddie" was a racer in his own right, having been twice the Late Model
Champion at Port Royal Speedway, with 34 wins at that Pennsylvania track. In
actuality, all three of the Spencer boys tried their hand at racing, Jimmy’s
brothers being Ed Jr. and Paul. I remember seeing young Paul race a couple of
times and he was pretty good, but he surely wasn’t Jimmy.
It was almost a given that Jimmy’s racing career would
begin at Port Royal, and in 1976 he went racing there for the first time in the
Late Model division. By April, he’d won his first race and was named track
Rookie of the Year for that year. After a couple more years of racing at Port
Royal, Jimmy moved up to the Modified ranks in 1979 and went racing at
Shangri-La Speedway in Owego, N.Y. with some of the very best in the business.
(Owego was only about 100 miles from where I lived back then, so I was quite
familiar with Jimmy, early on) Once again he garnered Rookie of the Year
honors, and as time progressed, it seemed that he’d found his niche in
racing. In 1983, he was Shangri-La Track
Champion, which included winning the “Race of Champions” on the now defunct
¾-mile track at Pocono. (It was located inside the big 2.5-mile triangle) In backing up that prestigious win, he also
captured the Stafford Spring Sizzler the following year.
It was in 1986 that he and car owner Frank Cicci
decided to make a run for the NASCAR Modified title, and it was probably no
accident that they came to that decision after the death at Martinsville
Speedway in October of 1985 of Richie Evans. Richie was one of the best racers
ever to sit behind a steering wheel, and held nine Championship titles in the
Modified division, with eight of them running consecutively from 1978 through
1985. (Richie was inducted into the
NASCAR Hall of Fame in the class of 2012; the only non-stock car personage to
be so honored to date)
Jimmy not only took the Modified crown in 1986 but
also repeated the feat in 1987, earning him the nickname of “Mr. Excitement”,
one that is still with him today. With
those titles in hand, he and Cicci made the decision to move up together to the
NASCAR Busch series for the 1988 season and managed to finish seventh in the
points. Jimmy won his first race in the Busch series at Hickory Motor Speedway
(I really miss that track, don't you?) the following spring and after two more
victories, signed with Buddy Baker to drive his Winston Cup entry, the Crisco
sponsored Baker/Schiff #88, along with Cicci’s Busch car. (In the Busch car,
over two years, he piled up 3 wins, 9 top-five and 24 top-ten finishes in 52
starts.) At the time, the ride with Buddy seemed like one of those marriages
made in heaven since Jimmy’s driving style was very reminiscent of that of the
“Gentle Giant” Baker.
Their first effort was on June 4, 1989 at Dover and
Jimmy finished 34th. In all, the pair would run 17 times that year,
scoring three top-10 finishes and eight in the top 20. Although both felt that
with a little time they would have a winning team, the Crisco sponsorship went
away, and with it went Baker/Schiff Racing. Sadly, that kind of luck or timing
would be repeated several more times throughout Jimmy’s career.
In 1990, he drove the #57 Heinz Ketchup sponsored car
for Rod Osterlund (The owner of Dale Earnhardt’s
first Winston Cup car), who had been making another foray into the Winston Cup
ranks. In 26 races that year, Jimmy only managed to glean two top-10 finishes
in what was admittedly an underfunded ride and at the end of the year, not only
was the sponsorship gone, but Osterlund as well.
In 1991, Jimmy raced his first season for his great
friend in racing, Travis Carter, driving the #98 Chevy sponsored by Banquet
Foods. In 29 starts that year, Travis and Jimmy scored one top-5 finish, six
top-10s and 12 in the top 20. At the end of the year, Banquet Foods removed
their sponsorship from Winston Cup racing, leaving Jimmy without a regular ride
for 1992.
Travis had a description of Jimmy back then, that was
passed on to the fans by Buddy Baker, and I’ve never forgotten it. Pardon me if
this quote is not verbatim, but it’s as close as I can come. Carter said,
“Jimmy is the kind of guy who, if I told him there was a guy at the gate
looking for him and he had a gun, Jimmy would say ‘I guess I’d better go get a
gun and find out what he wants.’”
He spent the 1992 season as a sub, driving one race
for Moroso Racing after the unfortunate death of
Robbie Moroso, and splitting the remaining 11 races
between Bobby Allison’s #12 Raybestos Ford and Travis
Carter’s #98 Ford, supposedly with new sponsorship from Moly Black Gold. (An
oil additive, I believe) In truth, that sponsor reneged on a contract and never
put up a cent for the time their name was on the car. I believe there was a
lawsuit instituted, but I have no idea if any funds were ever recovered.
In 1993, Bobby Allison found a full time sponsor for
his #12 car in Meineke Brakes, and hired Jimmy for
the full season. Although they scored no wins, that combination garnered 5
top-5s, 10 top-10s and 21 top-20s out of the thirty-race season. Things were
looking up for Jimmy, and that caught the eye of the legendary Junior Johnson,
who hired Jimmy for the 1994 season to drive his #27, McDonalds-sponsored Ford.
Under Johnson’s tutelage, Jimmy learned to be a calmer
and more focused driver, rather than just putting pedal to the metal and using
up the car before the race was over. He captured his first Bud Pole award at
North Wilkesboro Speedway (Another track that I sorely miss) in April. On July 4 of that year, he scored his first
Winston Cup Victory in the Firecracker 400 at Daytona, snatching the win from
Ernie Irvan, who was at the top of his form then. Three weeks later, Jimmy
scored his second (and last, to date) victory in the DieHard
500 at Talladega Superspeedway.
It looked like Jimmy had finally caught a break, but
alas, fate had other plans. His teammate, Bill Elliott, left Johnson at the end
of the year to start his own team and took with him the McDonalds sponsorship.
Left without a sponsor for the #27, Johnson shut down the team and Jimmy was
once more odd man out.
It wasn’t all bleak however. Enter best friend Travis
Carter, with a new team, a new car, #23 and a brand new sponsor from none other
than R.J. Reynolds, the parent company of Winston. With their Camel brand on
the hood and Jimmy Spencer at the wheel, the racing world said “Hello” to the
very controversial “Smokin’ Joe’s” Ford, painted a
truly ugly purple and yellow, with a cartoon caricature of a camel as its logo.
Although they never won a race together, Jimmy and
Travis remained together for seven years, through the 2001 season. In 1998, political
pressures to lose the cartoon camel caused R.J. Reynolds to change the
sponsorship on the car to “Winston No Bull”, and to withdraw their sponsorship
altogether for the year 2000, in compliance with the new rules placed on
tobacco advertising. That brought in a new sponsor, K-Mart and a new teammate,
Todd Bodine.
While all that was happening, Jimmy remained active in
the NASCAR Busch series as well, forming his own team in 1996, with Zippo
lighters on the hood as sponsor. Later he would team up with James Finch in
that series.
The 2001 season was not stellar for the #26. Although
he sat on two Bud poles that year and qualified in the top-25 twenty-six times,
he managed only three top-5 finishes and eight top-10s, while failing to finish
seven times. He did however, manage to clear the $2 million mark for the first
time in his career that year. Some of that of course, came from scoring three
wins and ten top-10s in Finch’s Busch entry.
In 2002, Jimmy signed to drive for Chip Ganassi Racing
with Felix Sabates, as a teammate to Sterling Marlin, and took the wheel of the
Target sponsored #41 Dodge. That season got off to a very rocky start when the
car failed to qualify for the Daytona 500, and it never got much better. In
fact, it ended with only two top-5s and 6 top-10s, with another DNQ at Watkins
Glen in August. Despite having a contract for the following year, Ganassi
informed Spencer that his services were no longer needed and replaced him in
the Target car with rookie Casey Mears. Adding insult to injury, Ganassi swung
a deal with James Finch to let his other young rookie, Jamie McMurray, drive
Finch’s Busch car in the races where Jimmy had been the driver.
2003 found Jimmy driving the #7 Sirius sponsored Dodge
for Jimmy Smith, owner of Ultra Motorsports. That team united Jimmy with an old
friend as his crew chief, Tommy Baldwin Jr.
Jimmy and Tommy’s father, Tom Sr., were fierce rivals back in the
modified ranks, but these two spoke the same language and seem to think the
same way.
Mongo is the name of the star-eyed dog
When questioned about his new team owner, who was then
somewhat an unknown in the Cup ranks, Jimmy said, “Jimmy Smith has been doing
this a long time -- a lot longer than people realize. He's been very successful
with the trucks. He was an off-road racer. Jimmy does what it takes. He's a
great guy. I've known him and his dad, D.J., for a long time. A lot of people
don't know that D.J. and Jimmy were associated with Junior Johnson years ago
and just loved racing.”
The end result of 2003 was more of the same for Jimmy,
scoring only one top-5 and 4 top-10s on the season. Then it was déjà vu, all
over again, as sponsor, Sirius Satellite Radio dropped its sponsorship at the
end of the year, and with that, pretty much ended Jimmy's racing career. He did
drive 26 races in 2004, for Morgan-McClure racing out of Abington Virginia, a
once proud team and multiple Daytona 500 winners with driver Sterling Marlin,
but alas, that team had fallen on hard times, lacked any sponsorship whatsoever
for many of those races, and what there was didn't pay the bills. In what one
could only call a very bad year, there were no top-5s, no top-10s… nothing.
Jimmy did catch a few fill-in rides the next couple of years, and though he's
never officially retired, his racing days are over… unless they put back the
doors that open to provide ingress and egress to the racecars.
Quite often, we hear the expression, “There are
drivers and there are racers.” Jimmy Spencer is a racer; make no mistake about
that. Additionally, Jimmy is no loser.
In his 427 Cup starts, he finished in the top-20 211 times, with 2 wins, 28
top-5s and 80 top-10s. We saw what he did with Junior Johnson and the
McDonald's sponsorship. Imagine what his numbers might have read, had he ever
found a sponsor that stayed with him… and those are just his Cup stats. If we
add in those from Busch, Trucks, ARCA and several Modified divisions, you have
the picture of a complete "Racer!"
On top of that, Jimmy has become quite accomplished
behind a microphone or in front of a TV camera. He hosted a pseudo-NASCAR talk
show, “What’s the Deal?”
on SPEED. He acted as co-host, with John Roberts and Kenny
Wallace on the SPEED pre-race and post-race shows, NASCAR RaceDay and NASCAR
Victory Lane as well as doing a commentary and Q&A segment on SPEED's NASCAR Race Hub. (SPEED… come home; all
is forgiven and we miss you!)
You can bet that Mr. Excitement takes his racing
seriously, and his aggressive style has perpetuated the myth the he’s “Meaner
than a junkyard dog”, but in reality, he’s not any more aggressive than many of
the “young guns” circling the ovals today. What he does have going for him,
which many of them haven’t grown into yet, is a tender side that was seldom
seen on the racetrack.
Besides spending as much time as possible with Pat and
in earlier years, with their two children, Jimmy Jr. and Katrina, Jimmy is not
afraid to spend time on his knees, for a couple of reasons. First, he is a
God-fearing and religious man, as are a good number of racecar drivers. In
Jimmy’s own words, “If you don't think there's a God, just wake up in the
morning and watch the sun come up, or watch a flower bloom over the period of a
couple days. It's incredible. There's a lot higher power than we can account
for.”
That statement leads us to the other reason that
you’ll find Jimmy on his knees. It may be just a bit surprising, but no more so
than finding out that Rosie Greer did needlepoint to relax. Jimmy Spencer, all
two hundred and some pounds of him, is an avid gardener, and I’m not referring
to tomatoes and peppers. Jimmy grows flowers… roses in particular.
When asked some time ago, in an interview with Dave
Rodman (nascar.com) what his favorite in the garden would be, he answered,
“Roses are, because if you've got a really nice rose they are really awesome,
but they are hard. You've got to really be on top of them all the time. I love
flowers -- any kind of flowers. They all have different personalities. Gerbera
daisies are very pretty flowers and so are geraniums, daisies, roses, petunias.
Every kind of flower out there is awesome. I think you also need to mix a lot
of structure in there -- hollies and things like that. Everybody needs to do
gardening, in my opinion, because it is really relaxing and you realize there
is a God when you watch that stuff bloom. That stuff don't bloom by itself -- there
is a good Lord above, between the birds and the bees pollinating stuff, it's
awesome.”
In the same interview, Jimmy was asked what his
favorite event of the year was, and he obviously interpreted the question to
mean “Holiday.” His answer was, “I have a lot of them. I think Easter's a
pretty neat day, but I look forward to Christmas Day -- I do. I know the good
Lord sent Jesus down and He was born, but it won't be long now that Christmas
won't mean the same to me with my kids being gone. To watch my kids' faces
growing up -- the memories and the pictures and watching them with pride with
the things you had gotten them. Believing in Santa Claus -- I still believe in
Santa Claus. That day, when you see a child see Santa and the excitement he has
coming down the steps on Christmas morning. Then, the older they get they
realize that Christmas is for Jesus. It's life, and
then they get old. But you can never turn back time -- you've just got the
memories.”
Those words, gentle readers, are not the words of a “junk
yard dog,” but the words of a gentle and loving father who just happens to have
been one hell of a racer. I hope that I’ve shared some things with you about
Jimmy that you weren’t aware of before today. For my part, I’d love nothing
better than to see Mr. Excitement back in Victory Lane, beaming that boyish
smile at the cameras. Sic ‘em Mongo!
And time now for our Classic Country Closeout. For
Country Music lovers, this 1970 edition of the Johnny Cash Christmas Show is
very special as it features the first time that baby John Carter Cash is seen
by the viewing audience. Please enjoy!
Be well gentle readers, and remember to keep smiling.
It looks so good on you!
~PattyKay 