Conversation: Jimmy Spencer

FT. WORTH, Texas -- He's back.

Jimmy Spencer returned to the Nextel Cup Series at Texas after a five-race layoff. A layoff, he says, drove him crazy.

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There's nothing Spencer likes better than running a few hundred miles at 175 mph every Sunday. Missing Bristol, his favorite track, really hurt.

Spencer was on the phone since Daytona, pitching his services, and Larry McClure was the man who called him back.

NASCAR.COM's Ryan Smithson talked with Spencer at Texas about the layoff, his new job with Morgan-McClure Motorsports, and the firestorm created by his comments about Toyota's entry in the Craftsman Truck Series.

Jimmy, you've had a chance to watch racing on TV the past few weeks. What do you think of the coverage of it?

I don't know. I have not really watched a whole race because I couldn't stand (not racing), but what I've watched and what I remember, I think the TV coverage needs to realize there's 43 cars and not three. All it is.

Did you know that on NASCAR.COM you were the most-searched driver on our search engine for the month of March?

I've had a lot of emails and a lot of things happen. I really appreciate it, you know. It means a lot to me. Glad to be back.

	Spencer (right) with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson

The Morgan-McClure deal is a pretty good deal for me. I won't deny I was calling people and talking to different people.

I would have liked to have been back at Bristol, but I will be in the fall. And I think here at Texas we have to grow together and learn. I think we can be competitive.

We can be a top-10 team without a question, and it's going to take some time to figure each other out and build on that.

They have everything it takes. I will be back and running good, and so will this team. As long as we keep working together, we will be talked about a little more I hope.

Jimmy, you've obviously got your Saturday afternoons free, and your Toyota remarks created more media attention than you figured. If a Toyota team called and said 'Hey, we want you to drive,' would you do it?

The whole thing about the whole Toyota truck deal that bothers me – nobody, none of the reporters that I saw – reported the whole thing the way it was supposed to be reported.

But that is life. You know, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, at least that is what I was taught in school.

And it was meant to have a fun intent to it, and if they went on and listened to that rest of that answer to the question, about the building the Houston plant and the way Toyota is going to help the Truck Series, the whole nine yards, they missed the whole thing.

I think sometimes people are blindsided. They keep their blinders on like a racehorse and they don't want to know what is going on beyond what they want to focus on. To me, that thing got blown way out of shape.

I think Toyota is going to be good for the Truck Series. Once again, will I drive one? I'll drive anything that has four tires and wheels on it.

If they want to race lawn tractors, I could do that. I am getting good at it. I am getting good at mowing the lawn.

I know a lot of these guys don't mow their own lawn and don't weed-whack. I am waiting for them to have a race with weed-whackers and lawn mowers and stuff.

I know none of the drivers mow their grass. It's probably below/beneath them.

You ever spun your lawn tractor out to create a caution?

It ain't got enough horsepower. I am trying to figure out if Dale Jr. did that last week (at Bristol). I think it's pretty cool what he did.

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I think he learned a valuable lesson, not saying what he really wanted to say. I didn't know NASCAR had a rule about that, and I don't think Dale Jr. did either. I think it was pretty cool myself. NASCAR come down on him hard.

You know, I still love him. He talks, he talks. That is what the people want. They want to know how you feel and stuff.

That is pretty neat in this sport where we have some drivers who are not afraid to talk and say stuff like that.

He took his consequences and went on, I don't think that was fair, them taking their 25 points away. I think that was a little hard on it, but anyway, that is life.

When did Larry (McClure) call you and how did that come about?

Larry didn't call me. I kept calling Larry. Kept calling a couple other guys. Ain't going to mention their names.

	Larry McClure

I just think Larry's team has been around a little while and been very successful in the past, and we just have to build this thing up and I think I can do it for him.

Who knows where it can lead, but I really feel that we can be a top-10 race team, and that is what we are going to try to do. We will work on that.

Can we do it right out of the box? If we do it, that is great, but I don't think we can, but we are not going to say we can't.

But we are going to build on it. You can never set your expectations too low, you always got to reach for the stars, I think everybody that is in racing, from the guys who work in the shop to the pit crew, are very competitive people and they all have egos and you make them feel important and you have to make them feel wanted.

That is something I think I have been good at – making my guys feel good and my guys feel wanted. I know one thing for sure, I can't drive a racecar by myself, I have to have a bunch of good people supporting me, and I think I have it here.

I have Larry's suppoort, and that is where we will go from there.

Conversation runs every Monday at 11 a.m. ET on NASCAR.COM.