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a former NASCAR driver. 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: Cup, the Xfinity Series, and the Truck Series. Jimmy Spencer followed his father, Ed Spencer Sr. (Fast Eddie), in racing. Spencer started in Late Models in Pennsylvania. He captured his first racing 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 changes the National Modified Championship into the smaller-schedule Winston Modified Tour (now Whelen Modified Tour) in

1985, Spencer continued to run, and won the title in 1986 and 1987. Spencer debuted in the Xfinity Series in 1985, finishing 19th at North Carolina Motor Speedway in the #67 Pontiac for Frank Cicci Racing, which was also his Modified team. In 1989, he moved to the Winston Cup Series, driving the #88 Crisco Pontiac for Buddy Baker's team in 17 of the 29 races. He posted three top-tens and finished 34th in points. He then ran full-time in 1990, finishing in the top-ten twice for Rod Osterlund Racing. During the season, he posted two top-tens in the #57 Heinz Pontiac and finished 24th in points. In 1991, Spencer moved to the #98 Banquet Frozen Foods Chevrolet for Travis Carter Motorsports. He began 1992 with Carter, but moved down to the Xfinity Series to drive the #20 Daily's 1st Ade Oldsmobile for Dick Moroso after

Carter's team folded early in the season. He responded with wins at 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 #12 Meineke Ford Thunderbird full-time in 1993, and finished in the top-five five times, resulting in a career-best fifteenth-place in the final standings. In 1994, he drove the #27 McDonald's Ford for Junior Johnson and claimed his only two career Cup race wins, at Daytona and Talladega. In the 1994 Pepsi 400, Spencer

won his first career Cup race despite leading only one lap. He later won again at Talladega; making it two wins for the year. The only two career Cup wins Spencer would achieve. In 1995, Spencer left to reunite with Travis Carter, who was now fielding the #23 Smokin' Joe's Ford. In 1998, Winston/No Bull became his team's new primary sponsor and he was eleventh in points when he suffered injuries at the Brickyard 400, forcing him to sit out the next two races to recover and fall to fourteenth in points. For the 2002 season Spencer would join Chip Ganassi Racing and drive the #41 Target Dodge Intrepid. He began the season by failing to qualify for the Daytona

500, then had a streak of four top-five qualifying efforts, including at Bristol Motor Speedway, where he started fourth and was leading the race when he was bumped by Kurt Busch to win, starting a long rivalry between the two. Spencer joined Ultra Motorsports in 2003, piloting the #7 Sirius Satellite Radio Dodge. He also drove the Team ASE truck and claimed his lone truck series win this season. After some on-track incidents with Kurt Busch, Spencer confronted Busch after the GFS Marketplace 400 while Busch was still in his car. He was suspended for the next weeks race, the Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway while Busch was placed on probation. He began 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 13th, 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 #2 Ultra truck in 2005. While he failed to win a race with them, he had nine top-ten finishes and finished twelfth in points. He did come 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. Spencer began working full-time on SPEED. 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 and 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 & Thursday editions of NASCAR Race Hub are done from the studio of that show. From 2010, to present, Spencer talks about the NASCAR highlights while he often sobs with his sag called "The

Fantasy NASCAR Racing

JIMMY SPENCER - 02/15/1957