It was inevitable that Jimmy would choose race car driving for a career, being brought up surrounded by racing cars and paraphernalia. His father, Ed Spencer Sr. ("Fast Ed") and all of uncles were racing drivers on the short tracks in the North East, (even his aunts raced in the Powder Puff Derby). Jimmy Spencer was born on the 15th February 1957 in Nanticoke, a small town in Pennsylvania and he started his racing career in 1976 at the Port Royal Speedway, driving in the Late Model division.

Jimmy Spencer (Courtesy or Wiki Commons)

Later he moved over to the Modified division at the Shangri-La Speedway in Owego, New York, winning the "Rookie of the Year" Award in 1979 and gained two victorious championships in 1982 and 1983 at the same track. The 1984 season saw Jimmy as a strong contender for NASCAR’s National Modified Championship when all sanctioned races counted towards the final points total but after competing in over sixty races he came second to Richie Evans.

In 1985 NASCAR changed the schedule of the National Modified Championship to the smaller Winston Modified Tour (now the Whelan Modified Tour) Jimmy was still looking to win the championship which he did, back-to-back in 1986 and 1987. His aggressive style of driving earned him the nickname of "Mr Excitement" and after winning many races and championships in the highly competitive Modified Division and armed with his reputation in 1985 he ventured south to debut in the Busch Series at North Carolina Motor Speedway. He finished nineteenth, driving the #67 Pontiac for his team, Frank Cicci Racing. Only running twice the following year, 1987, the team finished in 36th place in the points standings but in 1988 he ran the full season and finished seventh in the points standings.

His first Busch career win came in 1989 along with two further wins for the season giving him fifteenth in the final standings. In 1989 Jimmy ran his first races in the Winston Cup Series driving a Crisco Pontiac #88 for former Winston Cup winner, Buddy Bakers team. He ran seventeen of the twenty nine races and posted three top tens, finishing 34th in points. Over the next four years he drove for various teams with some success but each teams sponsorship was hanging by a thread. Finally, in 1994, he landed one of his most wanted rides - behind the wheel of a car fielded by the legendary Junior Johnson. The season did not start well, his aggressive reputation came to the fore when his car made contact with Ken Schrader’s car, making Jimmy’s car spin out of control and as the cars slowly made their way around the track under a caution flag Jimmy’s temper got the better of him and he rammed Schrader’s car in retaliation. Now Jimmy needed to vindicate himself and to show everyone just how good he was and he did this by winning his first Winston Cup career race at Daytona International Speedway.

It was the Pepsi 400 and it was evident that there were two strong contenders for the chequered flag, it was between Jimmy and Ernie Irvan who, incidentally, once bore the same aggressive reputation as Jimmy. Jimmy tried passing Ernie on the high side and the low side, leaving Ernie guessing what Jimmy’s move would be in the last lap. When this came Jimmy drove high in turn two on the 33 degree banking, running just inches from the wall. Ernie hung low, trying to protect the lead and diving down towards the back straightway, Jimmy pulled his Thunderbird to the inside of Ernie with the momentum propelling him next to Ernie’s Ford. The two Thunderbirds ran side by side into turn three and maintained their position through turn four before roaring towards the finish line. Jimmy won by inches in one of NASCAR’s most exciting finishes. His plan had come together. Jimmy said about that victory, "I’ll tell you how I beat Ernie Irvan at Daytona: determination. Junior Johnson told me that if there was anybody else in that car, he doesn’t believe they’d have won that race. I did unorthodox things, but I tried to win. And I did." That year he won a further event, the DieHard 500, at the Talladega Speedway and he gained his first career pole at North Wilkesboro Speedway as well and finished 29th in the point’s standings. This was to be his last win in the Winston Cup Series.

Throughout a twenty seven year NASCAR racing career covering the Sprint Cup Series, the Nationwide Series and Camping World Truck Series Jimmy has achieved a total of fifteen victories, 184 Top Tens and seven poles. His achievements have been NASCAR Modified Division track championship in 1982 and 1983 and National Modified champion in 1986 and 1987. He was the Shangri-La, Owego, New York "Rookie of the Year" and named ninth on NASCAR’s all-time Top 10 Modified Drivers. Since his retirement Jimmy is employed full time as a racing analyst for SPEED TV.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This web page may contain copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This page is operated under the assumption that the pictures on this page represent a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. Any text or images that you feel need to be removed please contact me.

Comcast.net
Motor Mint Website
NASCAR Website

Comments

Be the first person to comment on this item

You must Login to comment on this item.