August 31, 2007
By Allen Madding

Allen Madding

James Peter Spencer was born Feb 15, 1957 in Berwick, Pennsylvania. Growing up, Spencer became hooked on racing watching his father, Ed, and his uncles compete in the Northeast. Spencer won his first race in the Late Model division at Port Royal (Pa.) Speedway in 1976. In 1979, he won the Rookie of the Year title in the asphalt Modified division at the legendary Shangri-La (N.Y.) Speedway. He won back-to-back Modified track championships at Shangri-La Speedway in 1982 and 1983. His aggressive driving style at Shangri-La earned him the nickname "Mr. Excitement". Spencer etched his name in the history books of racing by winning consecutive national Winston Modified titles in 1986 and 1987.

In 1985, Spencer made his debut on the NASCAR Busch Grand National Series in the Sandhills 200 at Rockingham finishing 19th and collecting $500. He made two more Busch starts in 1987, but mechanical failures put him out of both events. In 1988, Spencer competed in his first full season in the Busch Series starting all 30 events driving the No.34 Quick Stop Beverage Buick. He had five top fives, 13 top tens and finished seventh in the Busch Series points.

Jimmy Spencer

In 1989, Spencer scored his first NASCAR Busch Grand National Series win at Hickory Motor Speedway in the Mountain Dew 400. He went on to score three wins, four top fives, and 11 top tens and finished 15th in Busch Series points. Spencer made his debut in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series the same year, making 17 starts and logging three top tens driving the No.88 Crisco Pontiac owned by Buddy Baker and Danny Schiff. Spencer crashed out of six events during the 17-event schedule and by the end of the year parted ways with the team.

In 1990, Spencer signed on to drive the Rod Osterland owned No. 57 -- Heinz 57 Pontiac for a full season in the Winston Cup Series. Spencer made it into 26 of the 29 events charting two top ten finishes for the year. In 1991, Spencer parted ways with Osterland and signed on to drive the No. 98 Banquet Frozen Foods Chevrolet of Travis Carter in Winston Cup. The team’s best showing came in the First Union 400 at North Wilkesboro where Spencer finished third. He recorded one top 5 and three top tens for the season.

In 1992, Spencer drove seven events for Travis Carter in the No. 98 Moly Black Gold Chevrolet. He accepted an offer to drive the No. 20 Food City Ford owned by Dick Moroso at Bristol and then drove the No. 12 Raybestos Brakes Ford of Bobby Allison for the last four events of the season. Spencer logged three top-fives and three top-tens in the Winston Cup Series for the year. He ran 25 of the 31 events in the Busch Series driving the No. 45 Moly Black Gold car, the No. 77 Paramont Motors Buick, the No. 20 Daily’s 1st Aide Oldsmobile, and the No. 28 Havoline Ford. He scored two wins in the Busch Series winning the Carolina Pride/Budweiser 200 at Myrtle Beach Speedway in June and the Texas Pete 300 at Orange County Speedway in Rougemont, North Carolina. In the Busch Series, he recorded two wins, six top-fives, ten top-tens, finishing 17th in the Busch Series points.

In 1993, Spencer drove the full 30-event Winston Cup Series schedule in the No. 12 Meineke Muffler sponsored Ford for Allison. He finished second in the 1993 Winston 500 at Talladega, recording five top-fives and ten top-tens, and finished 12th in the championship points standings.

Spencer signed on the drive Junior Johnson’s No. 27 McDonalds Ford for 1994. Spencer had two wins in the Cup series driving for car owner, Junior Johnson. His first Winston Cup victory came in the Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway in July. He scored his second the same year in the Diehard 500 at Talladega. The same year, he scored his first pole in both the Busch and Cup Series.

In 1995, Spencer was back with Travis Carter driving the No. 23 Smokin Joe’s Fords. Spencer won the Winston Select Open - a non-points qualifying race for the Winston All-Star race at Charlotte. He started 29 of the 31 events on the Winston Cup schedule, recording four top-tens.

In 1996, Spencer returned to the seat of the No. 23 Smokin Joe Camel Cigarettes Ford in the Winston Cup Series and launched his own NASCAR Busch Series team with Zippo sponsorship. During the NASCAR Winston Cup Series Delaware 500 at Dover, Delaware, Spencer and Wally Dallenbach were involved in a crash with 44 laps remaining in the event. Spencer proceeded to try to get a few punches in on Dallenbach after the crash and NASCAR fined Spencer $10,000. In the Winston Cup Series, Spencer recorded two top-fives and nine top-tens. In the Busch Grand National Series, he recorded one top-five and five top-tens.

In 1997, Spencer had two wins in the Busch Series as an owner/driver driving the No. 20 Zippo sponsored Chevrolet. Spencer won the Food City 250 at Bristol and the All Pro 300 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway (Charlotte). In 12 starts in the Busch Series for the season, Spencer had two wins, seven top fives, and seven top tens. In the Winston Cup Series, he recorded one top-five and four top-tens behind the wheel of Travis Carter’s No. 23 Ford.

In 1998, Spencer won the Busch Series event at Las Vegas driving his own No. 12 Zippo sponsored Chevrolet. He logged one win, five top-fives and six top-tens in his eight starts in the Busch Series. In the Winston Cup Series, Spencer charted three top-fives and eight top-tens behind the wheel of Travis Carter’s No. 23 Winston No Bull Ford.

In 1999, Spencer recorded two top-fives and four top-tens in the Winston Cup Series driving Carter’s Ford. In the Busch Series, he logged five top-fives and six top-tens driving his own Zippo Chevrolet. In 2000, Spencer started six Busch events recording one top-10. He had two top-fives and five top-tens in Carter’s Kmart sponsored Ford.

In 2001, Spencer abandoned his Busch operation to accept an offer to drive for James Finch’s Phoenix Racing Busch Series team. He scored two poles and three wins that season. In the Winston Cup Series, Spencer qualified on the pole at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Lowe’s Motor Speedway (Charlotte). At the end of the season, Spencer informed his Winston Cup Series car owner, Travis Carter, that he was leaving to drive for Chip Ganassi in 2002 after scoring two poles, three top-fives and eight top-tens.

In 2002, Spencer began driving for Chip Ganassi in the Winston Cup Series driving the No. 41 Target Dodge, and driving in the Busch Series for James Finch. In the Winston Cup Series that year, Spencer and Kurt Busch had the first of what would prove to be many on track altercations. In the closing laps of the spring race at Bristol, Busch knocked Spencer out of the way to take the lead. Busch went on to win and Spencer finished second. After the race, Spencer was fuming, “Kurt just smashed by back bumper. The good Lord saved it. I never touched him”, said Spencer ” He just hit me. I am sure he said I checked up. I never forget. When I smash back, he won’t finish.” Busch had another take on the situation, “Last year he dumps us, and that was in my mind”, said Busch, “I set the stage for it. He was the one that never forgets. I never forgot what happened in Phoenix.”

At Bristol in August, Jimmy Spencer got into Busch sending Busch’s car hard into the wall. At Indianapolis during the Brickyard 400, on lap 36, Spencer hit Busch from behind, putting Busch into the wall. Other drivers commented that it as a blatant move on Spencer’s part. Busch got out of his car and waited for Spencer to come back around and made several unflattering gestures to Spencer including Busch grabbing his buttocks.

In November of 2002, Chip Ganassi, Spencer’s Winston Cup Series team owner, announced that he was releasing Spencer as the driver of the No. 41 Target Dodge despite Spencer having a year left on his driving contract. The team had two top-fives and six top-tens for the season. In the Busch Series for the 2002 season, Spencer had one win, two top fives and eight top tens.

In January of 2003, James Finch told Spencer that he was releasing him as the driver of the Phoenix Racing Busch Series team. Spencer elected to go back to competing in the Busch Series with his own Spencer Motor Ventures team. Jim Smith, owner of Ultra Motorsports, announced that he had signed Spencer to drive the No. 7 Sirius Satellite Radio sponsored Dodge in the Winston Cup Series.

During the Winston Cup Series Michigan race in 2003, Kurt Busch picked up a ongoing spat with Spencer that dated back to the 2002 Food City 500 at Bristol. Busch hit Spencer and tapes of radio conversations later revealed Busch bragging about the contact and saying he needed to be a little further along side Spencer to cave his front fender in and ruin the handling of his car. After the event, Busch stopped his car squarely behind Spencer’s team transporter, which he later claimed his car conveniently ran out of gas at that precise location, and began taunting Spencer. Spencer had his fill with Busch and walked over to the car and punched Busch in the face. Busch played himself out to be the victim in the press and with NASCAR.

NASCAR suspended Spencer from competing in the following week’s Sharpie 500 at Bristol, fined him $25,000 and placed him on probation. NASCAR also placed Busch on probation for his part in the altercation. Later in the week, when he was confronted by the media with tapes of his radio transmissions, Busch responded, "There isn't a race that goes by where someone doesn't employ a racing tactic like Jimmy and I did to one another last week at Michigan," Busch said. "You might try to take the guy's air off his spoiler or loosen him up, or you might try to knock his fender in to make his car push. Just like a bump and run, it's part of racing. We're all doing what we need to do.”

In 2003, Spencer had an on-track altercation in July at New Hampshire with John Andretti. Andretti’s car struck the wall and sustained substantial damage. Andretti was hot, "It drives me nuts to think that another guy would do that," Andretti said after the incident. "It's really disappointing. He's got a full-time job. He's not making life any easier for me, I'll tell you that. I'm really, really disappointed for the team, disappointed for me, disappointed on the day. We had a good car and we got taken out for no reason. It's not right. ... The way I feel, I think it was real intentional."

Spencer felt the incident was all Andretti’s fault, “John's reaching for straws," Spencer said. "It was just a racing deal. He passed me earlier in the race, and slipped up coming off the corner, and I got back underneath him. "We went down the back straightaway, and I passed him. We went into 1 and 2, and my car freed up a little bit, He kept pinching me down, pinching me down. My feeling was it was a racing thing. But on the other side of it, I feel like John probably could've used more common sense. He should've said, 'Wait a minute. This is my first ride in this car. I've got to get familiar. I'm starting pretty far back.' He didn't. He went to being aggressive and pinching me down to the point where I had no alternative left. My car just got a little free, and we bumped, and he ended up spinning out. I sure didn't mean anything by it. You know, desperate people do desperate things, I guess."

Spencer went on record one top-five and four top-tens in the Winston Cup Series. In the two Busch events he competed in, he recorded one top-ten finish. Spencer won his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event in the September event at New Hampshire. He had one win, one pole, one top-five and two top-tens in the Truck Series for the year.

Always out spoken, Spencer’s comments in 2004 on Toyota entering the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series caused quite a stir. They "bombed Pearl Harbor, don't forget," the San Antonio Express-News quoted the 46-year-old driver as saying during media day at Texas Motor Speedway. "As long as it's good for the economy, I guess it's OK," said Spencer, who added that he was rooting for Ford, Chevrolet and Dodge to humiliate Toyota.

After finishing 24th in the 2004 Daytona 500, Spencer was released as the driver of the unsponsored Ultra Motorsports Nextel Cup Series car when team owner Jim Smith elected to close his operation. In March of 2004, Morgan-McClure announced it was releasing Kevin Page, the driver of their No.4 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series car, and putting Spencer in the car for a “trial run” beginning with the Samsung Radio Shack 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

In October 2004, Morgan McClure Motorsports announced they were releasing Spencer three days prior to the BASS PRO SHOPS MBNA 500 race in Atlanta. "Over the past several weeks there has been a steady and gradual improvement in the Morgan McClure racecar and Spencer has been an integral part of this drive for success. While his part has been greatly appreciated by everyone here at Morgan McClure Motorsports, it has been decided, by mutual agreement, that it would be beneficial to both the team and to Jimmy Spencer to release him so that he may pursue other driving opportunities within the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series," Larry McClure, team owner, said.

The announcement came just days after Spencer was arrested and charged for interfering with police officers attempting to serve a warrant on his son, Johnathan. Spencer was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting a police officer. Spencer's son, Johnathan and another young man were accused of pouring paint on two cars and were charged with damaging personal property.

At the end of 2004, Spencer had started three Busch events, 26 Nextel Cup events, and three Truck Series events and failed to score a top-10 finish in any of the three series.

In 2005, Spencer competed full time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driving Jim Smith’s No.7 Team ASE Dodge. Spencer started the season off with a second place finish at Daytona. Four events later, he recorded a third place finish at Gateway International Raceway, and finished fifth at Indianapolis Raceway Park. In 25 starts in the trucks, Spencer accumulated three top-fives and nine top-tens. Spencer wheeled Michael Waltrip’s No. 98 Bryan Foods Chevrolet in the NASCAR Busch Series event at Atlanta starting the event in 23rd position and finishing in 27th four laps down to the leader. Spencer made 11 starts in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series driving Don Arnold’s No. 50 U.S. Micro Corporation / Allied Steel Structures Dodge in nine events, Jeff Stec’s No. 66 Arbor Mortgage Ford in one event, and John Carter’s No. 37 BoSPOKER.net Dodge in one. His best finish was a 21st place showing at Bristol finishing eight laps down.

Spencer closed out his NASCAR career in 2006 driving Barney Visser’s No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet in the Nextel Cup Series two events at Pocono recording a 32nd and 36th place finish. Since climbing out of the driver’s seat, Spencer has stayed connected to the sport by working on the crew of Speed Channel’s “NASCAR Race Day” television program.

The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.