James Peter Spencer (born February 15, 1957) is an American former racing driver, team owner, and television commentator. He is best known for competing in
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. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and ...
. He hosted the NASCAR-inspired talk show, ''What’s the Deal?'', on
Speed
In everyday use and in kinematics, the speed (commonly referred to as ''v'') of an object is the magnitude of the change of its position over time or the magnitude of the change of its position per unit of time; it is thus a scalar quant ...
, and was co-host, with
John Roberts and
Kenny Wallace, of Speed's pre-race and post-race NASCAR shows ''
NASCAR RaceDay'' and ''
NASCAR Victory Lane''. Before retiring, Spencer had a segment on Speed's ''
NASCAR Race Hub'' offering commentary and answering viewer questions (on Tuesdays and Thursdays). During his days racing
modifieds, he was nicknamed "Mr. Excitement"
for his aggressive racing style. Spencer is one of the few drivers to have won a race in all three of NASCAR's top series: the
NASCAR Cup Series
The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, and from 1950 to 1970 it was known as the Grand National Division. In 1971, ...
, the
Xfinity Series, and the
Camping World Truck Series
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is a pickup truck racing series owned and operated by the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, and is the only series in NASCAR to race production pickup truck based stock cars. The series is one of th ...
.
Spencer's Cup wins both came in summer
1994
File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nels ...
at the restrictor plate races at
Daytona and
Talladega.
Early life
Jimmy Spencer followed his father,
Ed Spencer, Sr., commonly known as "Fast Eddie", in racing. Spencer started driving
Late Models in
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
. He captured his first win in the Late Model division at
Port Royal Speedway in 1976. He moved to NASCAR Modifieds at
Shangri-La Speedway (
Owego,
New York), then branched out to bigger events throughout the Northeast.
In 1984, Spencer was one of the top contenders for NASCAR's National Modified Championship, at a time when all sanctioned races counted toward that title; after running over sixty races, he was second to
Richie Evans in the final standings. When NASCAR changed the National Modified Championship into the smaller-schedule Winston Modified Tour (now the
Whelen Modified Tour) in 1985, Spencer continued to run, and won the title in 1986 and 1987.
Spencer debuted in the
Busch Series in
1985, finishing 19th at
North Carolina Motor Speedway in the No. 67 Pontiac for
Frank Cicci Racing, which was also his Modified team. The team ran twice in
1987 with a best-finish 36th, then ran the full season in
1988, finishing seventh in the point standings with 5 top-5's and 13 top-10's in the No. 34. In
1989
File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...
, Spencer won his first career Busch race, the
Mountain Dew 400 at
Hickory Motor Speedway. Spencer later won another two that season at
Orange County and
Myrtle Beach, finishing 15th in the final standings.
1989–1994
In
1989
File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...
, he moved to the
Winston Cup
The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, and from 1950 to 1970 it was known as the Grand National Division. In 1971, ...
Series, driving the No. 88
Crisco-sponsored Pontiac for
Buddy Baker
Elzie Wylie "Buddy" Baker Jr. (January 25, 1941 – August 10, 2015) was an American professional stock car racing driver and commentator. Over the course of his 33-year racing career, he won 19 races in the NASCAR Cup Series, including the 1980 ...
's team in 17 of the 29 races. He posted three top 10's and finished 34th in points. He then ran full-time in
1990
File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicis ...
, finishing in the top 10 twice for
Rod Osterlund Racing
Rod Osterlund was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series car owner spanning from 1977–1981, and then again from 1989–1991. He earned his money off rental property in California. Osterlund's first race as a car owner was at the 1977 Cam 2 Motor Oil 400 w ...
in the No. 57
Heinz
The H. J. Heinz Company is an American food processing company headquartered at One PPG Place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the co ...
-sponsored
Pontiac Pontiac may refer to:
*Pontiac (automobile), a car brand
*Pontiac (Ottawa leader) ( – 1769), a Native American war chief
Places and jurisdictions Canada
*Pontiac, Quebec, a municipality
** Apostolic Vicariate of Pontiac, now the Roman Catholic D ...
and finished 24th in points. In
1991, Spencer moved to the No. 98
Banquet Foods
Banquet Foods is a subsidiary of Conagra Brands that sells various food products, including frozen pre-made entrées, meals, and desserts. The brand is best known for its line of TV dinners.
Banquet was founded in 1953, with the introduction of ...
Chevrolet
Chevrolet ( ), colloquially referred to as Chevy and formally the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors Company, is an American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors (GM). Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941) and ou ...
for
Travis Carter Motorsports. Despite six top-10 finishes, Spencer dropped one position in the standings due to twelve DNFs. He began
1992
File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment building in Amsterdam after two of its engin ...
with Carter, but moved down to the Busch Series to drive the No. 20
Daily's 1st Ade-sponsored
Oldsmobile
Oldsmobile or formally the Oldsmobile Division of General Motors was a brand of American automobiles, produced for most of its existence by General Motors. Originally established as "Olds Motor Vehicle Company" by Ransom E. Olds in 1897, it pro ...
for
Dick Moroso after Carter's team folded early in the season. He responded with his second career wins at both
Myrtle Beach Speedway and
Orange County Speedway.
Late in the 1992 season, Spencer joined
Bobby Allison Motorsports' Cup team and posted three top-fives in the last four races of the season. He signed to drive Allison's No. 12
Meineke-sponsored
Ford Thunderbird full-time in
1993, and finished in the top 5 five times, resulting in a career-best 12th-place in the final standings. In
1994
File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nels ...
, he drove the No. 27
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hambur ...
-sponsored Ford for
Junior Johnson and won his first two and only career Cup races, the
Pepsi 400 at Daytona, and the
DieHard 500 at Talladega. On the final lap at Daytona, Spencer won his first career Cup race passing
Ernie Irvan for his only scored lap lead.
He also won his first career pole award for the
Tyson Holly Farms 400 at
North Wilkesboro Speedway. Other than that, the season was a huge disappointment, as he would only score two further Top 10 finishes and finished the season 29th in the standings.
1995–2001
After finishing 29th in the standings in 1994, Spencer left to reunite with
Travis Carter
Travis Carter (born November 21, 1949) is a former car owner and crew chief in the NASCAR
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known fo ...
, who was then fielding the No. 23
Smokin' Joe's-sponsored Ford. He finished in the Top 10 four times in
1995 and in
1996
File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 800, causing the plane to crash and killing everyone o ...
, Spencer had two Top 5's en route to a 15th-place finish in points. He fell to 20th in
1997
File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...
.
In
1998,
Winston/No Bull became his team's new primary sponsor and he was 11th in points when he suffered injuries at the
Brickyard 400, forcing him to sit out the next two races to recover and fall to 14th in points. During the season, Spencer formed his own NASCAR team,
Spencer Motor Ventures Jimmy Spencer may refer to:
* Jimmy Spencer (American football) (born 1969), American NFL cornerback
* Jimmy Spencer ( game design) (born 1990), American game designer
* Jimmy Spencer (footballer) (born 1991), English football player
* Jimmy Sp ...
, which fielded the No. 12
Zippo-sponsored
Chevrolet Monte Carlo in the Busch Series for himself and
Boris Said,
Steve Grissom, and
Rick Mast. The team expanded to two cars in
1999
File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...
, fielding the No. 12 and the No. 5
Schneider National-sponsored Chevy for
Dick Trickle. In
2000, he moved his team up to Cup to run the road course races with
Boris Said in the No. 23
Federated Auto Parts
Federated may refer to:
* Federated state, a constituent state within a federal state
* Federated school, a model of administration in some educational institutions
* Federated congregation, a type of religious congregation
Computing
* Federat ...
-sponsored
Ford Taurus. The team ceased operations at the end of the season.
After a 20th-place finish in
1999
File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...
, Winston left the team, and
Kmart became the team's new sponsor, causing Spencer to switch to the No. 26 to accommodate the new sponsor, who was already backing the No. 66 car driven by Spencer's teammate,
Darrell Waltrip. Spencer had two Top 5's and in
2001
The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanist ...
won the pole positions at
Indianapolis Motor Speedway
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is an automobile racing circuit located in Speedway, Indiana, an enclave suburb of Indianapolis, Indiana. It is the home of the Indianapolis 500 and the Verizon 200, and and formerly the home of the United Sta ...
and
Lowe's Motor Speedway
Charlotte Motor Speedway (previously known as Lowe's Motor Speedway from 1999 to 2009) is a motorsport complex located in Concord, North Carolina, outside Charlotte. The complex features a quad oval track that hosts NASCAR racing including ...
and advanced to 16th in points.
2002–present
For the
2002
File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...
season, Spencer would join
Chip Ganassi Racing
Chip Ganassi Racing, LLC (CGR), also sometimes branded as Chip Ganassi Racing Teams, is an American auto racing organization with teams competing in the NTT IndyCar Series, IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, FIA World Endurance Champions ...
and drive the No. 41
Target
Target may refer to:
Physical items
* Shooting target, used in marksmanship training and various shooting sports
** Bullseye (target), the goal one for which one aims in many of these sports
** Aiming point, in field artillery, fi ...
-sponsored
Dodge Intrepid. He began the season by failing to qualify for the
Daytona 500
The Daytona 500 is a NASCAR Cup Series motor race held annually at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. It is the first of two Cup races held every year at Daytona, the second being the Coke Zero Sugar 400, and one of thre ...
, then had a streak of four top-5 qualifying efforts, including at
Bristol Motor Speedway, where he started fourth and was leading the race when he was bumped by
Kurt Busch
Kurt Thomas Busch (born August 4, 1978) is an American professional auto racing driver. He last competed full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 45 Toyota Camry TRD for 23XI Racing. He is the 2004 NASCAR Cup Series champion and th ...
to win, starting a long rivalry between the two. After another DNQ at
Watkins Glen International
Watkins Glen International, nicknamed "The Glen", is an automobile race track located in the town of Dix just southwest of the village of Watkins Glen, New York, at the southern tip of Seneca Lake. It was long known around the world as the hom ...
, Spencer was released from the ride at the end of the season, causing him to file a lawsuit against the Ganassi organization, saying his dismissal was a violation of his contract. Also in 2002, Spencer won his last career Busch Series race, the
Food City 250 at Bristol driving for
Phoenix Racing.
Spencer joined
Ultra Motorsports in
2003
File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A ...
, piloting the No. 7
Sirius Satellite Radio-sponsored Dodge. After some on-track incidents with
Kurt Busch
Kurt Thomas Busch (born August 4, 1978) is an American professional auto racing driver. He last competed full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 45 Toyota Camry TRD for 23XI Racing. He is the 2004 NASCAR Cup Series champion and th ...
, Spencer confronted Busch after the
GFS Marketplace 400 while Busch was still in his car. He was suspended for the next week's race, the
Sharpie 500 at
Bristol Motor Speedway while Busch was placed on probation. Despite the events that took place at Michigan, he had four top 10s and ended the season 29th in points. He was also hired to drive three races for in the No. 2
Team ASE Racing Dodge Ram for Ultra's Truck Series team, winning the pole and the race in his second start at
New Hampshire International Speedway
New Hampshire Motor Speedway is a oval speedway located in Loudon, New Hampshire, which has hosted NASCAR racing annually since 1990, as well as the longest-running motorcycle race in North America, the Loudon Classic. Nicknamed "The Magic M ...
. He became a part-owner of the Cicci organization that season, when he put Stuart Kirby in Cicci's No. 34
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Si ...
-sponsored Chevy, but that partnership soon dissolved. He continued to remain involved as a part-owner, when he leased his shop to Bang! Racing in the Craftsman Truck Series in 2004.
He began 2004 NASCAR Winston Cup Series, 2004 with Ultra's Cup team at the Daytona 500, but when the team closed down due to a lack of sponsorship, he replaced Kevin Lepage at Morgan-McClure Motorsports, which had also been running unsponsored. Spencer's best finish that season had been 17th at Dover after gaining sponsors in Featherlite Trailers and Lucas Oil, when on October 25, he was arrested after trying to interfere with the police, who had a warrant to arrest his son for vandalism. The incident cost Spencer his job at Morgan-McClure, and he sat out the rest of 2004.
Spencer returned to the No. 2 Ultra truck in 2005 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, 2005. While he failed to win a race, he had nine top-10 finishes and finished 12th in points. He came close to a victory, however, in the season opener at Daytona. He held the lead late in the race and held off 2004 series champion Bobby Hamilton until just before the caution came out on the last lap. Assuming he was in the lead when NASCAR froze the field, he completed the caution lap then pulled into victory lane, only to be told by an official that, in fact, he had finished second. He also ran part-time in Cup, running nine races in the No. 50 Arnold Motorsports Dodge, and one race apiece for Peak Fitness Racing and R&J Racing.
When Arnold was unable to locate a sponsor and Ultra closed its doors following a fallout with the Ford Motor Company, Spencer began working full-time on the Speed TV network. He had run both Cup races at Pocono Raceway for Furniture Row Racing in 2006, finishing 32nd and 36th, respectively. Spencer then worked full-time as an analyst for SPEED TV on
NASCAR RaceDay,
NASCAR Victory Lane and eventually was the host of his own show ''What's The Deal?'', along with Ray Dunlap in 2010. The show was cancelled the same year. His segments on the Tuesday and Thursday editions of ''
NASCAR Race Hub'' were done from the studio of that show.
In his television commentary, Spencer talked about the NASCAR highlights while he often feigning sobs with his gag called "The Crying Towel", for which a driver gets the crying towel and a fake cigar if they complain about something that cannot be punishable. In 2012 Spencer named his "Crying Towel" segment as "(Driver) Radio Sweetheart."
On November 21, 2013, on ''NASCAR Race Hub'', Spencer said he was still not ready to announce his retirement yet, despite not racing in several years. As he still has not raced in a long time (and still has not announced retirement) he has not showed up on NASCAR Race Hub since late 2013. Spencer has been inactive in the NASCAR community since leaving Race Hub.
Motorsports career results
NASCAR
(Template:NASCAR driver results legend, key) (
Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. ''Italics'' – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)
Nextel Cup Series
=Daytona 500
=
Busch Series
Craftsman Truck Series
ARCA Hooters SuperCar Series
(Template:NASCAR driver results legend, key) (
Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. ''Italics'' – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)
References
External links
NASCAR.com Biography*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spencer, Jimmy
1957 births
Living people
People from Berwick, Pennsylvania
American Speed Association drivers
NASCAR drivers
NASCAR team owners
Racing drivers from Pennsylvania
Trans-Am Series drivers
Chip Ganassi Racing drivers
Michael Waltrip Racing drivers