The Big One looms, and Smith is ready
Auto Club 500 Advance - California Speedway

MOORESVILLE, N.C. (April 24, 2003) - Geologists and scientists have been predicting it for years - a massive earthquake that will rattle the coast of California and begin the slow process of breaking apart the state from the mainland.  This tremor will be so massive it's already got a name.  They're calling it "The Big One."

Scientists have spent countless hours slaving over the mystery of the San Andreas Fault.  They've reasoned that this boundary of tectonic plates is where large amounts of energy are released, which in turn creates earthquakes.  And they've predicted that sometime in the next 30 years, "The Big One" will strike San Francisco, and Californians from miles around will feel it.

This alone has everyone along the heavily populated western seaboard on pins and needles.  Well, everyone except Jim Smith, owner of Ultra Motorsports, Ultra Wheel Company and just about everything else Ultra.  Smith, you see, already has a plan.

"This is why I've also got a house in Arizona," he says with a laugh.  "Because if California falls off the face of the earth, I'll still have beachfront property."

Smith can be lighthearted about the matter because he's got so many other things on his mind.  His No. 7 SIRIUS Racing Team is in position to make large gains in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series point standings, but it needs to start making its move this weekend in the Auto Club 500 at California Speedway (Fox, 3 p.m. EDT).  Smith has been around this sport for over three decades, and he knows the longer the season progresses, the more difficult it is to close gaps.

With the Winston Cup Series returning to action after a much-needed week off, the entertaining owner of the Ultra Motorsports Dog Pound sits down to discuss his team, his home state, and what he expects from his boys this weekend.

SIRIUS Racing Owner Jim Smith's thoughts: 

Are you looking forward to racing in your own back yard?
"Without a doubt.  I love California.  I've lived here all my life, and I love racing out here.  We always take a big group of people from the Wheel Company out to the track, and we just have a good time.  Everybody in racing talks about how they look forward to Charlotte race weekend because they can sleep in their own beds.  Well, this is my Charlotte."

It's been well documented how you claim to be the happiest car owner in the garage area.  Is that still true after nine races?
"Absolutely.  I couldn't be happier with the group of people we've got at the shop.  That doesn't mean I'm happy that we're 28th in points right now, but I know we've got the potential to be better.  I know it for a fact.  I see the way (crew chief) Tommy Baldwin and (driver) Jimmy Spencer work together, and I know they have a chemistry that can lead to good things for SIRIUS and Ultra Motorsports."

What has to happen then in the next stretch of races for this team to maximize its potential?
"I think we need to learn how to execute better.  We're running good, we're just not executing.  I think we just had a run of bad luck, and we've made some mistakes to go with it, and it has hurt us.  What are the odds that the 76 Union gas pumps go bad like they did at Martinsville?  What happens if the yellow flag doesn't bite us at Bristol?  Those little things hurt us, and we haven't executed the way we need to either.  But it's all going to turn around for us this weekend."

Hometown feelings aside, do you like California Speedway?
"I like it a lot.  It's a lot like Las Vegas, and we ran well there.  I'll accept nothing less than a top 10 this weekend."

Since this is your hometown track, do you think SIRIUS will let you borrow the Mongo costume again?  I must say, you looked pretty good in it at Talladega.
"I think we definitely need the Mongo costume this weekend.  Mongo needs to be with us everywhere we go.  You know I was in the grocery store the other day and a guy saw my SIRIUS shirt and said, "HEY MONGO!"  I laugh every time someone says that, because it still amazes me how big this dog has become.  Everywhere we go - and I don't care if it's Darlington, or Bristol, or Texas, or California - people are talking about Mongo.  It's a great deal for SIRIUS.  I don't think there's a marketing guru in the world that could've predicted the rise of Mongo."

SIRIUS Dodge to roll of 24th Sunday
Auto Club 500 Qualifying Report - California Speedway

FONTANA, Calif. (April 25, 2003) - Those who went through NASCAR withdrawals last week can now breathe easier, for the Winston Cup boys are back. And so is Mongo.

Jimmy Spencer qualified the No. 7 SIRIUS Dodge in the 24th position Friday afternoon at California Speedway, putting him on the outside of row 12 for Sunday's Auto Club 500 NASCAR Winston Cup race. Spencer turned a lap around the 2-mile speedway in 39.031 seconds at a speed of 184.469 mph.

"It could have been a lot better," said Spencer, who will be making his 414th career start on Sunday. "We've been having a lot of problems with the front end bottoming out. We've got it as high as we can get it. We qualified well with this car at Las Vegas, and the guys have been working really hard to get it the way we had it."

This car handed Team SIRIUS a 17th-place finish at Las Vegas (3/2) and a seventh-place finish at Atlanta (3/9) before a wreck at Texas (3/30) gave it extensive damage. The Ultra Dog Pound has been working relentlessly ever since to ready this car for Sunday's race.

"This isn't where we wanted to start this race," Spencer said. "We just need to get some luck on our side. We'll keep working on it, and we'll be running in the top 10 on Sunday. There's one thing we've got that none of those other teams got, and that's Tommy Baldwin. We've got two practices tomorrow to get this car better. That's more than enough time for Tommy and the boys.

Steve Park won the Bud Pole Award with his time of 38.536 seconds (186.838 mph). Bill Elliott will line up on the outside of row one, followed by Tony Stewart, Ryan Newman, and Elliott Sadler.

The Auto Club 500 is set to start at 3 p.m. (EDT) and will be televised live on Fox. Team SIRIUS will hope to build on its fourth top-20 finish of the season two weeks ago at Martinsville Speedway.

SIRIUS FAMILY RACING WITH HEAVY HEARTS: Team SIRIUS will race this weekend in memory of offshore powerboat racer Jack Stoerrle, who died in a racing accident at Daytona on April 12. Stoerrle, the National Pro Series and World Championship in 2000, piloted the Forumula Racing/SIRIUS boat in the American Powerboat Association (APBA). This weekend the No. 7 SIRIUS Dodge driven by Jimmy Spencer will sport a special decal in memory of Stoerrle, whose R&S SIRIUS team finished runner-up in the World Championship last year. Stoerrle is survived by his wife and three young children.

KEEPING THE RHYTHM: The SIRIUS Rhythm of the Road tour will be jiving again, as Spencer and Mongo will appear Saturday afternoon for a 45-minute autograph and Q&A session. The session will start at 4 p.m. (PDT) or approxately 30 minutes after the conclusion of the NASCAR Busch Series race.

No California Dreamin' for Team SIRIUS
Auto Club 500 Race Report - California Speedway

FONTANA, Calif. (April 27, 2003) - California was anything but a dream for the Dog Pound.

Having wrestled with the car's setup on Friday and Saturday, the No. 7 SIRIUS Racing Team looked as if it had found the right combination on Sunday -- until the car turned evil. Jimmy Spencer's day went from good to bad to worse, leaving him with a Dodge Intrepid difficult to keep in the right direction. As a result, he finished the Auto Club 500 in 33rd place.

"The car was evil," Spencer said. "I never could hustle the car. Every time I tried to give some input into the wheel, it just busted loose. Not good."

Kurt Busch won the race by outlasting Bobby Labonte and Rusty Wallace to the checkers. Bill Elliott finished fourth and Jamie McMurray fifth. Dale Earnhardt Jr., Michael Waltrip, John Andretti, Matt Kenseth and Sterling Marlin rounded out the top 10.

MONGO ON A ROLL AT THE START: Had all 250 laps gone like the first 44 for Spencer, Team SIRIUS would've been looking at a top 10. The Berwick, Pa., driver climbed from the 24th starting spot to 16th. Two early cautions kept the field in a bunch, and the No. 7 Dodge clipped off positions at a rapid pace.

"Man, it felt really good at that point," Spencer said. "That was the best it had been all weekend. We struggled with the car on Friday and Saturday. We didn't qualify where we thought we could, and so we tried some things on Saturday. We still couldn't get it very fast, so (crew chief) Tommy (Baldwin) threw a whole bunch of changes to it Sunday morning. We really didn't have a choice. After Happy Hour, we were sitting there trying to figure out what to do. I asked him, 'So what do you think?' And he said he was going to sleep on it and then decide. We got here this morning and I asked what he was going to change, and he said everything but the decals."

Baldwin's changes worked. Spencer was not only passing cars, he was pulling away from them. A pit stop in 14.3 seconds advanced the SIRIUS Dodge three more positions, and on a lap 44 restart, the Dog Pound was sitting 13th.

THINGS TURN AFOUL: The day turned sour in a hurry. A misappropriation of air pressure in the tires hurt the stagger on the Mongo Machine, and it set the tone for an afternoon that increasingly got worse. Spencer fell from 13th to 37th in two laps. His only saving grace would've been a caution flag that would've allowed the Dog Pound to service the car, but it didn't come before leader Tony Stewart put Spencer a lap down.

"It feels like something's broken," Spencer radioed to Baldwin. "Something's making the rear end move all over the place. It wants to pivot straight into the wall."

Team SIRIUS made a myriad of changes to the car in the ensuing 125 laps, including wedge adjustments, air pressure adjustments and track bar adjustments. They even pulled a rubber out of the springs during the fifth caution. The car, in turn, gradually improved, but Spencer was stuck three laps down to the leaders, making it impossible to gain positions.

Spencer's only improvement in positions the rest of the day fell credit to race attrition. There were more than a few. The biggest incident of the day came on lap 231 with seven cars involved. Other accidents included pole sitter Steve Park, who was involved in a wreck on lap 1. Also, Tony Stewart was leading a bulk of the laps in the early stages before blowing an engine at lap 129. The race was slowed by eight cautions for 34 laps.

TRYING TO MAKE A LONG DAY SHORTER: Leave it to spotter Donnie "Fat Boy" Eppling to bring humor to a day full of aggravation.

Eppling at lap 189 with his best Tommy Baldwin/New York accent: "Yo Jimmy, how you doin'?"

Eppling at lap 203: "Hey Jimmy, you got any songs you wanna sing to me?"

Eppling at lap 219: "Watch it Jimmy, those boys are getting stupid up in front of you. They're not professionals like you are."

Fat Boy knows his limits, though.

"I wanted to say, 'TIRE CONSERVATION, JIMMY. SAVE THOSE TIRES!' but I figured he would stop the car, run up to the spotter's tower and beat the crap out of me if I would've said that. So I thought better of it."

POINT STANDINGS: Spencer remained in 28th position in the NASCAR Winston Cup point standings with 910 points. He's 51 points out of 27th, 116 out of 20th and 239 out of 10th.

NEXT UP FOR THE POUND: The NASCAR Winston Cup Series will return to one of the most exciting tracks on the circuit, Richmond International Raceway, where it will enjoy Saturday night racing at its finest. The Pontiac Excitement 400 will start at 8:30 p.m. EDT Saturday, June 3.