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Jimmy Spencer
Spencer in 1998
Born	(1957-02-15)February 15, 1957 (age 68) Berwick, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Achievements	1986, 1987NASCAR Featherlite Modified Series Champion 1985World Series of Asphalt Tour-Type Modified Champion 1982, 1983Shangri-La SpeedwayNASCAR Winston Racing Series Track Champion 1984Spring Sizzler Winner 1983Race of Champions Winner
Awards	Named ninth on NASCAR's all-time Top 10 Modified Drivers 1979 Shangri-La Speedway NASCAR Modified DivisionRookie of the Year
NASCARCup Series career
478 races run over 18 years
Best finish	12th (1993)
First race	1989Budweiser 500 (Dover)
Last race	2006Pennsylvania 500 (Pocono)
First win	1994Pepsi 400 (Daytona)
Last win	1994DieHard 500 (Talladega)
Wins Top tens Poles 2 80 3
NASCARXfinity Series career
212 races run over 20 years
Best finish	7th (1988)
First race	1985Sandhills 200 (Rockingham)
Last race	2005Aaron's 312 (Atlanta)
First win	1989Mountain Dew 400 (Hickory)
Last win	2002Food City 250 (Bristol)
Wins Top tens Poles 12 93 3
NASCARCraftsman Truck Series career
31 races run over 3 years
Best finish	12th (2005)
First race	2003Virginia Is For Lovers 200 (Richmond)
Last race	2005Ford 200 (Homestead)
First win	2003New Hampshire 200 (New Hampshire)
Wins Top tens Poles 1 11 1

James Peter Spencer (born February 15, 1957) is an American former racing driver, team owner, talk show host and television commentator. He is best known for competing inNASCAR. He hosted the NASCAR-inspired talk show,What’s the Deal?, onSpeed,^[1] and was co-host, withJohn Roberts andKenny Wallace, of Speed's pre-race and post-race NASCAR showsNASCAR RaceDay andNASCAR Victory Lane. Before retiring, Spencer had a segment on Speed'sNASCAR Race Hub offering commentary and answering viewer questions (onTuesdays andThursdays). During his days racingmodifieds, he was nicknamed "Mr. Excitement"^[2] 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: theNASCAR Cup Series, theXfinity Series, and theTruck Series.

Spencer's Cup wins both came in summer1994 at the restrictor plate races atDaytona andTalladega.

Jimmy Spencer followed his father,Ed Spencer Sr., commonly known as "Fast Eddie", in racing. Spencer started drivingLate Models inPennsylvania. He captured his first win in the Late Model division atPort Royal Speedway in 1976. He moved to NASCAR Modifieds atShangri-La Speedway (Owego,New York), then branched out to bigger events throughout theNortheast. 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 toRichie Evans in the final standings. When NASCAR changed the National Modified Championship into the smaller-schedule Winston Modified Tour (now theWhelen Modified Tour) in 1985, Spencer continued to run, and won the title in 1986 and 1987.

Spencer debuted in theBusch Series in1985, finishing 19th atNorth Carolina Motor Speedway in the No. 67 Pontiac forFrank Cicci Racing, which was also his Modified team. The team ran twice in1987 with a best-finish 36th, then ran the full season in1988, finishing seventh in the point standings with 5 top-5's and 13 top-10's in the No. 34. In1989, Spencer won his first career Busch race, theMountain Dew 400 atHickory Motor Speedway. Spencer later won another two that season atOrange County andMyrtle Beach, finishing 15th in the final standings.

In1989, he moved to theWinston Cup Series, driving the No. 88Crisco-sponsoredPontiac forBuddy Baker's team in 17 of the 29 races. He posted three top 10's and finished 34th in points. He then ran full-time in1990, finishing in the top 10 twice forRod Osterlund Racing in the No. 57Heinz-sponsoredPontiac and finished 24th in points. In1991, Spencer moved to the No. 98Banquet FoodsChevrolet forTravis Carter Motorsports. Despite six top-10 finishes, Spencer dropped one position in the standings due to twelve DNFs. He began1992 with Carter, but moved down to the Busch Series to drive the No. 20Daily's 1st Ade-sponsoredOldsmobile forDick Moroso after Carter's team folded early in the season. He responded with his second career wins at bothMyrtle Beach Speedway andOrange County Speedway.

Late in the 1992 season, Spencer joinedBobby Allison Motorsports' Cup team and posted three top-fives in the last four races of the season. He signed to drive Allison's No. 12Meineke-sponsoredFord Thunderbird full-time in1993, and finished in the top 5 five times, resulting in a career-best 12th-place in the final standings. In1994, he drove the No. 27McDonald's-sponsored Ford forJunior Johnson and won his first two and only career Cup races, thePepsi 400 at Daytona, and theDieHard 500 at Talladega. On the final lap at Daytona, Spencer won his first career Cup race passingErnie Irvan for his only scored lap lead.^[3] He also won his first career pole award for theTyson Holly Farms 400 atNorth Wilkesboro Speedway. Other than that, the season was a huge disappointment, as he would only score two further Top 10 finishes and finished the season 29th in the standings.

After finishing 29th in the standings in 1994, Spencer left to reunite withTravis Carter, who was then fielding the No. 23Smokin' Joe's-sponsored Ford. He finished in the Top 10 four times in1995 and in1996, Spencer had two Top 5's en route to a 15th-place finish in points. He fell to 20th in1997.

In1998,Winston/No Bull became his team's new primary sponsor and he was 11th in points when he suffered injuries at theBrickyard 400, forcing him to sit out the next two races to recover and fall to 14th in points. During the season, Spencer formed his own NASCAR team,Spencer Motor Ventures, which fielded the No. 12Zippo-sponsoredChevrolet Monte Carlo in the Busch Series for himself andBoris Said,Steve Grissom, andRick Mast. The team expanded to two cars in1999, fielding the No. 12 and the No. 5Schneider National-sponsored Chevy forDick Trickle. In2000, he moved his team up to Cup to run the road course races withBoris Said in the No. 23Federated Auto Parts-sponsoredFord Taurus. The team ceased operations at the end of the season.

After a 20th-place finish in1999, Winston left the team, andKmart became the team's new sponsor, causing Spencer to switch to the No. 26 to accommodate the new sponsor, who was already backing the No. 66 car driven by Spencer's teammate,Darrell Waltrip. Spencer had two Top 5's and in2001 won the pole positions atIndianapolis Motor Speedway andLowe's Motor Speedway and advanced to 16th in points.

For the2002 season, Spencer would joinChip Ganassi Racing and drive the No. 41Target-sponsoredDodge Intrepid. He began the season by failing to qualify for theDaytona 500, then had a streak of four top-5 qualifying efforts, including atBristol Motor Speedway, where he started fourth and was leading the race when he was bumped byKurt Busch to win, starting a long rivalry between the two. After another DNQ atWatkins Glen International, Spencer was released from the ride at the end of the season, causing him to file a lawsuit against the Ganassi organization, saying his dismissal was a violation of his contract. Also in 2002, Spencer won his last career Busch Series race, theFood City 250 at Bristol driving forPhoenix Racing.

Spencer joinedUltra Motorsports in2003, piloting the No. 7Sirius Satellite Radio-sponsored Dodge. After some on-track incidents withKurt Busch, Spencer confronted Busch after theGFS Marketplace 400 while Busch was still in his car. He was suspended for the next week's race, theSharpie 500 atBristol Motor Speedway while Busch was placed on probation. Despite the events that took place at Michigan, he had four top 10s and ended the season 29th in points. He was also hired to drive three races for in the No. 2Team ASE RacingDodge Ram for Ultra's Truck Series team, winning the pole and the race in his second start atNew Hampshire International Speedway. He became a part-owner of the Cicci organization that season, when he put Stuart Kirby in Cicci's No. 34United States Air Force-sponsored Chevy, but that partnership soon dissolved. He continued to remain involved as a part-owner, when he leased his shop toBang! Racing in the Craftsman Truck Series in 2004.

He began2004 with Ultra's Cup team at the Daytona 500, but when the team closed down due to a lack of sponsorship, he replacedKevin Lepage atMorgan-McClure Motorsports, which had also been running unsponsored. Spencer's best finish that season had been 17th at Dover after gaining sponsors inFeatherlite Trailers andLucas Oil, 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.^[2]

Spencer returned to the No. 2 Ultra truck in2005. While he failed to win a race, he had nine top-10 finishes and finished 12th in points. He came close to a victory, however, in the season opener at Daytona. He held the lead late in the race and held off 2004 series championBobby 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. He also ran part-time in Cup, running nine races in the No. 50Arnold Motorsports Dodge, and one race apiece forPeak Fitness Racing andR&J Racing.

When Arnold was unable to locate a sponsor and Ultra closed its doors following a fallout with theFord Motor Company, Spencer began working on theSpeed TV network. He had run both Cup races atPocono Raceway forFurniture Row Racing in 2006, finishing 32nd and 36th, respectively, which ended up being his last NASCAR starts as a driver. Spencer then worked full-time as an analyst forNASCAR on Speed on theNASCAR RaceDay pre-race show andNASCAR Victory Lane post-race show. In 2010, he was also was the host of his own showWhat's The Deal? along withRay Dunlap. The show only lasted one year.

Spencer also became a co-anchor onNASCAR Race Hub on Tuesdays and Thursdays. In his television commentary, Spencer talked about the NASCAR highlights while he often feigning sobs with his gag called "The Crying Towel", for which a driver gets the crying towel and a fake cigar if they complain about something that cannot be punishable. In 2012, Spencer named his "Crying Towel" segment as "(Driver) Radio Sweetheart."

In atweet on May 16, 2012, Spencer stated that he was retired from driving.^[4] He continued to co-hostRace Hub, mainly alongsideSteve Byrnes andDanielle Trotta, until the end of 2013.

Spencer quietly leftNASCAR on Fox (Speed becameFox Sports 1 in August 2013) andNASCAR Race Hub after the 2013 season. Spencer has been largely inactive in the NASCAR community since then aside from an appearance onThe Dale Jr. Download in 2021 and appearing on the last episode ofRace Hub on June 11, 2024. In 2017, Spencer was quoted as saying “I still watch some races, it’s not a top priority anymore, but I miss it."^[5]

Spencer is married to his wife Pat and has two children and five dogs. He also had a sister, Chrissy, who died of ovarian cancer in 2010. His father,Ed, died of Alzheimer's in 2014. His first grandchild, Hudson, was born in 2016. Spencer and his wife split time between their two residences in North Carolina (where NASCAR teams are based) and Pennsylvania (his home state).^[6][7][8]

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time.Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time.Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

• NASCAR.com Biography
• Jimmy Spencer driver statistics at Racing-Reference
• Jimmy Spencer owner statistics at Racing-Reference
• 2008 Interview by NASCAR.com
• 2006 Interview by NASCAR.com

• 1957 births
• Living people
• People from Berwick, Pennsylvania
• Sportspeople from Columbia County, Pennsylvania
• American Speed Association drivers
• NASCAR drivers
• NASCAR team owners
• Racing drivers from Pennsylvania
• Trans-Am Series drivers
• Chip Ganassi Racing drivers
• Michael Waltrip Racing drivers
• American television sports announcers
• Motorsport announcers

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• BLP articles lacking sources from May 2024
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• Use mdy dates from May 2024