He is perhaps best known for punching Kurt Busch in the face following a race, but these days former NASCAR driver Jimmy Spencer is making his living as an analyst on SPEED -- where he definitely pulls no punches.

Currently the co-host of NASCAR RaceDay and NASCAR Victory Lane with John Roberts and Kenny Wallace, Spencer talked candidly about his new career, his own shortcomings as a driver, and what bugs him about today's crowd in the Sprint Cup Series garage.

Jimmy Spencer

By the Numbers

Cup Series starts	478
Cup Series wins	2
Cup Series top-fives	28
Cup Series top-10s	80
Cup Series poles	3
Best finish in Cup points	12th (1993)
Nationwide Series wins	12
Truck Series wins	1
Whelen Modified titles	2
Perennials newly planted	20-30
Busch brothers punched	1
Jeff Burton's chances of winning championship	0

• Stats: Cup | Nationwide | Truck

Q: How do you like your job as an analyst for SPEED?

Spencer: It was hard to get used to at first. The biggest thing is that when you say something that you feel is the truth, it offends somebody. So you walk in the garage area and somebody is mad at you. But I feel like I have to say those things, because if I didn't say those things, then I would not have the credibility that I have amongst the audience.

So that's the biggest thing that bothers me about doing TV. You can't make everybody happy.

Q: Has that been hard, since many of those people you're talking about are -- or have been -- your friends?

Spencer: Not all of 'em are my friends. It was really hard at first. But now I get over it pretty quick. [Former championship driver-turned-broadcaster] Darrell Waltrip told me once that it pays sometimes not to walk through the garage area. And Darrell, there are a lot of times when he gets people mad at him. But you try to give people the most honest answer and the most diplomatic way of saying somebody made a mistake or somebody did good or whatever.

But yeah, you walk through the garage area some days and it seems like a lot of people will give you that 'if I had a gun I would shoot you' look.

Q: Was it a difficult transition also because you wanted to continue driving at the time you moved to the broadcast booth?

Spencer: I was surprised. Rick Miner [SPEED Senior VP Programming/Production] called me and said, 'I'm telling you, this thing is going to work between you and Kenny Wallace and John Roberts.' And I was like, 'My God, I don't know if I'm gonna get along with Kenny.' But he insisted it would work.

I just owe a lot to Rick Miner from SPEED to put the whole thing together. ... The best thing he ever explained to me was when he said to think that you're sitting on your sofa and watching a show on TV, with your 10- or 12-year-old son or daughter sitting next to you and saying, 'What in the heck did he just say?' If you always keep that in mind when you explain something, you'll go far. But the minute you start to confuse people with language or words that you don't even understand sometimes, that's not good TV. You're not doing an interview to try to impress the CEO of a company; you're doing an interview to impress and inform a fan. Once I got over the stuff about saying this guy sucks or that team sucks right now or whatever, it felt good. It was like, 'OK, it's the truth. I can back it up. Plus, it's my opinion.'

Q: Any regrets or mistakes you'd like to take back that you've said on the air?

Spencer: I've only had to apologize one time. I made a mistake when I said Ray Evernham was going the wrong way with his teams -- and he had to prove me wrong. And he proved me wrong. And when he did, I came on the air and said I made a blunder here. I said I couldn't believe that he would put two or three people in charge, but it turned out he just beat everybody to the punch.

Now you don't see just the crew chief in charge anymore. You see engineers and specialists. The sport has changed. The crew chief is still the leader of the group, but there are four or five people that make decisions with them.

Jimmy Spencer hasn't made a start in NASCAR since 2006 when he raced in both Cup events at Pocono.

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The desire to do it is not there like it was a couple years ago. ... I guess I just don't want to put all the effort in that it would take.

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Q: When you were driving did you ever get ticked off at TV announcers or other media?

Spencer: The media in general? God, yeah. I got mad at some announcer for saying I caused a wreck, or I spun a guy out, or whatever. Yeah, and then I wouldn't talk to 'em for a while; then he would say something good about me and I would forgive him. All he was saying was what he thought I did wrong at the time.

Q: Do you have a better understanding of the media's role in all of this now?

Spencer: I have a better understanding simply from the standpoint that not everybody likes Jimmie Johnson. Not everybody likes Jeff Gordon. Not everybody likes Dale Earnhardt Jr. So you have to realize that. I mean, there are people that like Kasey Kahne; people that like Kurt Busch; people that like Derrike Cope or whatever. And people have opinions.

So when you say something, you're going to rile some people up. But the way I figure it is that as long as people are listening, some people aren't going to like you, and that's life.

Q: How much do you miss driving?

Spencer: I just made so many mistakes in my career. I stayed too loyal to people. I passed up opportunities and aligned myself toward the end of my career with some people who probably didn't give me as good a shot as I needed, and blamed me for it. And it wasn't me.

In fact, one guy is not in the sport any longer. Just so many things happened. But that hurt me. And I still think I could be driving.

I was really proud of Mark Martin at Phoenix a few weeks ago. Mark aligned himself with the right people and he's doing well. I don't think a 40- or 50-year-old driver is as good as a 20-year-old kid, but then there are more failures in their 20s coming in. A lot of them aren't nearly as prosperous as the older drivers, and I think there's a lot to be said for that.

Q: Did you ever consider going back and driving in the Craftsman Truck Series or something just for basically the fun of it?

Spencer: I've had some offers to drive some [Nationwide] cars and some trucks. But they weren't as competitive as I thought they should be, so I turned 'em down.

An example last year was it was two weeks before the All-Star race, and a guy told me, 'I'll give you X amount of dollars to drive my car. All I want you to do is start it and park it.' Because he was going to get paid X amount of dollars for that. So he was like, 'Just go out and make a lap, qualify it, pull in and park it.' I said, 'Nah, I've never done that in my life -- and I ain't gonna do it now.' He was like, 'I can't believe you're gonna turn down X amount of dollars to do that.' And I was like, 'Hey, the money is nice, I won't deny that. But I can't go on TV and say I've never done that, if I do it. So I'm not gonna do it.'

As far as starting and parking, I just think that is not a viable option. If I can't feel like I can run good in a car, run in the top 10 and have a shot of winning with, then, no, I don't wanna get back involved with it.

Q: So you're definitely done with it, as far as driving?

Spencer: I think I'm done now. I'm 51 years old, and there's no way.

Q: You look good for 51 ...

Spencer: I know. And I've listened to Jack Roush and Kevin Harvick and Tony Stewart, Carl Edwards -- and they all told me I could drive this [new Cup] car. Deep down inside, I say to myself that I should probably try it. But then as I get closer, I go, well, I'd have to lose about 20 pounds. I'd have to start working out every day again for an hour, an hour and a half.

And you know, I like playing in my garden. That's terrible, but that's where I'm at on it. The desire to do it is not there like it was a couple years ago. I've seen more people fail in racing because they didn't have the desire. ... I guess I just don't want to put all the effort in that it would take.

Q: How does a guy like you get into gardening, anyway?

Spencer: You're going down the airport concourse, and you're looking at these books with these beautiful flowers. They say it increases the value of your property.

I was fortunate a few years ago at my old house, this awning company wanted to use my house in this ad. ... The day they came, they brought this truck and all these plants and flowers. I stood back and looked at my back deck and said, 'Gosh, look at that! That's cool. I can't believe that.' I asked 'em where they got the stuff, and they said at a nursery. So I went to the nursery and started asking questions.

Some of the best information you can get is by going to places like that and talking to the elderly. And I shouldn't say elderly, but you know, people that have worked at places like that and have raised the plants and know what to do. ... But I went to a garden center and there was an elderly woman there, hobbling along. And I asked her, 'Sweetheart, I'm new to this and want to do some planting. What should I do?' I picked out two or three color arrangements, and in about a month I looked at it and said, 'I can't believe this.' And it bit me.

Q: How long ago was this?

Spencer: It's been going on for years now. My God, that had to be eight, nine, 10 years ago. I actually was doing it when I was still racing. It's still a work in progress. It's never perfect.

I've got weeds growing, so you go out and pull weeds. But it's relaxing. For me, I really enjoy it because I love to stay home. So instead of watching TV at night, I go out and work in the yard for an hour or two, with the dogs. I've got five of 'em. And I smoke a cigar.

Two acres I've got, and I've been working on that thing every year. I just put another 20 or 30 perennials in. I buy the small stuff, because it makes the most sense -- and then you can move 'em if you want to. The biggest thing I've learned is to make your own potting mix.

• NASCAR on SPEED

Q: Really? What do you make that out of?

Spencer: I use dirt and compost and peat moss, and all kinds of different things. I make a good soil mix for when I plant my plants, and then I water 'em real good. If they get a good start, it's easy to dig 'em back up. You don't want to dig 'em up three years from now. But if you dig 'em up a year later, you can move the stuff in the late fall or the spring. That's best time to move 'em. It's fun.

Q: So the bottom line is that these days you'd rather be gardening than racing?

Spencer: The older you get, the thing about racin' is that there is so much demand on your time. The other thing that upsets me a little bit about racin' right now is the complaining. The drivers -- a lot of 'em, and I'm not mentioning names -- but they complain a lot.

I remember when Kenny Schrader and Jimmy Spencer and Rusty Wallace, all these guys, were starting out. We had to bust our asses to get a good ride. And these kids who are getting these great rides handed to them, and then they don't appreciate what they've got; they complain, they whine, they [gripe] about the cars, they [gripe] about this and that. They have no clue. They don't have a clue what we had to do -- Dale Jarrett, myself ... I could go through a whole list of drivers who had to work so hard to get to where we are.

I know the sport has changed for the better. I think it has. But overall, that detracts me from some of the new drivers coming in. They're whiners. They whine. I don't like a whiner.

Q: You won at Talladega in 1994, driving for Junior Johnson. Were you surprised you're career didn't take off on the Cup side from there?

Spencer: I don't regret driving for Bobby Allison and Buddy Baker and Junior Johnson -- but they were all on the tail-end of their ownerships. When I drove for Junior and we won, he closed down the following year. He was at the age where he had had a enough of it. He had won everything he needed to win, the whole nine yards. I'll never forget him telling me, 'I guess I wish it was five years ago and you were driving for me.' I never forgot that.

Jimmy Spencer thinks Carl Edwards can win a title; as for the former driver of the No. 99, not so much.

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I'm picking somebody that when it comes to crunch time, they get it done. That's one thing Old Man Earnhardt could do. He could get that last little bit out of that car.

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Then I drove for R.J. Reynolds, and that was a great deal. We should have won some races. And just stuff falling off the car -- radiators, fan belts, you name it -- the [crap] that kept happening to that thing, kept us from doing it. And you know, I made a lot of mistakes. But I don't regret 'em. One thing about me, people always knew where I stood. I still have a lot of friends in the garage area. I think the world of Harvick.

Q: But not everybody loves you?

Spencer: People ask me why I would get on Jeff Burton, because I said a couple of weeks ago that I didn't think he could win a championship. I don't feel, in my opinion, that Jeff Burton has showed he can win a championship. A lot of people said, 'You're crazy. He's leading in the points.'

When it comes to crunch time, I'm picking Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards ... I'm picking somebody that when it comes to crunch time, they get it done. That's one thing Old Man Earnhardt could do. He could get that last little bit out of that car. I always admired Dale Earnhardt for that.

In my opinion, that was the best driver of all time -- because he always could get that little extra out of his car. I was a good friend of his. I didn't have that in me. I was a hell of a driver, I thought, but I never had that final kill tactic. He told me I didn't focus enough on it. I find that interesting.

Q: It's interesting that you would say that about yourself. Didn't a lot of folks think you had that mentality?

Spencer: I could do it. But I would let stuff sidetrack me. I could get sidetracked pretty easy. That was my downfall.

I tell people on the show or they come and ask me. I've had a talk with David Ragan; I've had talks with Kyle Busch. Mr. France called me in the [NASCAR] hauler and said, 'You need to go talk to these guys for me.' ... I tell 'em, 'Don't do what I did. Do what I say. And if you focus on that, you'll be further ahead.' So people learn from their mistakes.

It's like a quarterback. What makes a good quarterback? A guy who doesn't throw the second interception; he doesn't throw the same interception that he threw last week. That's what makes a good quarterback.

What makes a good driver is the same thing. Focusing not on what you did last week, but what you can do to get better week in and week out. That's what made Dale Earnhardt so great. I didn't do that. I would very easily get depressed in the car because, dammit, the pit crew is going to let me down or whatever. I would always try to say something. I never was a complainer, but I always had it in the back of my mind. That kept me from being as good as maybe I could have been.