Conversation: Jimmy Spencer

HAMPTON, Ga. -- Very few drivers in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series had more to prove at the start of 2003 than Jimmy Spencer.

First, team owner Chip Ganassi threw Spencer on the scrap heap at the end of last season when he released the Berwick, Pa., veteran from driving his No. 41 Target Dodge.

	Jimmy Spencer

But Spencer has rebounded well this season with several standard-setting performances in Jimmy Smith's No. 7 Sirius Dodge. Spencer took a moment at Atlanta Motor Speedway to sit down with NASCAR.com's Dave Rodman and talk about the spate of rain hitting NASCAR, his car owner and his relationship with crew chief, Tommy Baldwin Jr.

What's your take on the amount of bad weather that's affected the early part of the NASCAR season? You're a gardener, so you must be all over it.

We've had an excessive amount of rain in the Charlotte area -- I don't know how many days. But it is good. The whole south has been devastated by drought for the past few years, so the rain has been beneficial for that. It has hampered the racing, but it hasn't really affected the schedule to the point where it's caused us any real trouble, yet. As long as it doesn't that's OK and we'll just keep doing this rain dance and hope that it rains just enough and we can keep getting our races in on Sundays.

Does this prove that there's more important stuff going on than just racing?

Too many people don't believe in God, but I do. I believe there's a God up there and He controls most of this stuff that's going on, believe me. The devil's working against Him, but He knows we needed the rain and He put it there for us.

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.

You and Tommy Baldwin were serious competitors in the Featherlite Modified Series. How well have you meshed at Ultra Motorsports?

Tommy was a very intense person and when I watched him compete, he was always thinking. He always worked hard on his dad's cars and he always worked hard on the guys' cars that he was helping out with at the tracks. That intensity level will make you successful and I just noticed that about him. He's a very competitive person, but you have to be to succeed on this level.

When Tommy first came down here, years ago, I asked my car owner to put Tommy as my crew chief. He said, 'No. He's too hardheaded,' and everything else. So Jimmy put him as his crew chief, and then he hired me. People said we were going to clash. We both have the same personalities, so you'd never think we'd get along.

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The biggest thing is Tommy isn't intimidated by me and I'm not intimidated by Tommy. That's behind us. That's the key, I think. Tommy really thinks I can do it, and I really think Tommy can do it. That's a step in the right direction. The biggest thing that Tommy has is respect for the crew. I think that's important in this sport. It's not that he's ever above those guys. He's on the same playing field with those guys in the shop. That means a lot.

Under the circumstances under which you came here, do you feel any extra pressure to produce?

The team didn't do worth a crap last year if you look at it. That's what Jimmy says. He said I passed more cars at Rockingham than they passed all year last year. I was definitely concerned, and he was concerned, too. He knew we were worried because he hadn't done well in Winston Cup racing. He said it was up to us to do it.

All winter long we talked about what we were going to do with the cars, what we were going to do to make sure everything was the same in the cars so we had repeatability in them. We were going to go to the wind tunnel. Jimmy was giving us plenty of money for testing and wind-tunnel time.

Yeah, we were concerned. Somebody wrote we were a 37th-place team coming to a gunfight with a knife. You don't realize how cool it was for you guys to pick on my guys because it (expletive) them off. They hung the stuff up all over the wall. It was neat for them to know that at least they were written about. They said, 'It's pretty neat they've got us that far down because they don't realize how good we are.' My only comment to them was, 'You've got to prove it.'

I was definitely concerned because the team had never done anything good, but Tommy said, on the other hand, that's the neat part about this organization. They haven't done anything. Now we can make it do something. I think we could be a top-15 car. We're pretty close to establishing that, and that's what we need to do. We'll get to the top 10, and I really feel we can win a race or two this year, maybe more than that. You never know.

You're in the midst of a lawsuit with last year's owner, Chip Ganassi. Is that a distraction or is it just like background noise -- you ignore it?

	Credit: Autostock

I've got a good lawyer working on that for me and I don't have to be concerned about that at all. I concentrate on what I need to be concentrating on.

What went wrong last season?

I was doing everything I was supposed to do last year. I drove my heart out -- I just didn't get along with the people there. I feel like you have to have good people. Every team has good people, but you've got to be able to get along with one another. You've got to believe in that person. Anybody that would go to bed with a woman at night and get up in the morning and start arguing with her -- that's what they call a divorce. I've been with my wife -- I always get in trouble for this -- it's over 20 years. She's pretty dumb for being with me. I'm excited about this year. I have a lot of inner energy and it means a lot how people treat you in your organization. You can see it. It's not fake. I've got a good bunch of boys.

You have quickly developed a good rapport with your team and your owner, Jimmy Smith. How critical is that?

We come together pretty quickly. Tommy Baldwin has put a bunch of good guys there. We feel like we've had three top-15 finishes, actually maybe two top-10s (but) we've had some problems. The pit crew is impressive -- very, very fast. I'm impressed how, in less than a month, how quickly we've got a good relationship rolling (and) that's what you need. If you can't get along with your people, if they don't believe in you and you don't believe in them, I'll guarantee you that's the quickest way to failure there is.

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.

How big a role does confidence play in the success of a race team?

The whole race team has got to be confident. That includes the motor builders, chassis builders, the guys that put the bodies on -- if you don't have confidence in one another, you're not going to be successful. I'm even talking about the girls in the front office. You walk into our shop and see them there with a smile on their face. When everybody is getting along and everything is going good, that's when you're going to capitalize.

I can't say enough about how easy my guys are to get along with. They never question me. If I tell them what I'm feeling or what I think I need, they say 'OK, we've got to fix it.' That's a lot of the reason why I think the Sirius team is going to do well this year.

What's the future hold for Jimmy Spencer?

I love racing. I've done it my whole life. I'll be involved in racing. I don't know how. I don't know when I'm going to retire or quit driving. I sparked some interest in my (Ultra Motorsports) race team, and they feel good because I'm the oldest guy on my team except the car owner.

I'll probably own a race team. I own a Busch team right now, and we're going to field a car at Texas. My wife and I talk about it, and I love this sport. I've given my whole life to it. I'm trying to get the Busch Series car running good and get a rookie in it and be over here in Winston Cup as a car owner eventually. It'll be pretty neat.