MOORESVILLE, N.C. (March 28, 2003) - Now that Team SIRIUS has led laps,
contended for wins and proved to the world its existence, the question asked to
driver Jimmy Spencer was simple: What's next?
Surprisingly, the talker from Berwick, Pa., chooses not to say anything at all -
just a smile. He acts like he knows the answer, but a string of success
will make anyone superstitious, and Spencer doesn't want to jinx what his team
has cooking. You can't blame him. The curve has gone nowhere but up
since the season-opening Daytona 500, capped with the best performance of the
year last weekend. At Bristol Motor Speedway, Team SIRIUS led 139 laps in
the Food City 500, only to get caught by a caution and the simple misfortune of
pit sequencing.
As the "Dog Pound" heads to Texas Motor Speedway this weekend for the
Samsung/Radio Shack 500, Spencer sits down to discuss his views on the team's
rapid rise to notoriety, and whether he's doing the best driving of his whole
15-year career.
FORT WORTH, Texas (March 30, 2003) - Jimmy Spencer has a saying that,
after Sunday's Samsung/Radio Shack 500, seemed most appropriate for the No. 7
SIRIUS Racing Team: "Mom always said we'd have days like this."
The oddities and annoyances of big-time stock car racing hit Team SIRIUS in
every way possible on Sunday. Starting 18th, the Dog Pound tussled with a
loose oil line that put the No. 7 Dodge one lap down. A tight race car
made it hard to catch up, and a scary spin down the Texas Motor Speedway
tri-oval resulted in hard contact with the wall. After spending nearly a
half-hour in the garage to repair the damage, Team SIRIUS returned to the track
to finish 33rd.
"This was just one of those days," Spencer said. "There's
not a whole lot else I can say. The car was really tight all day, and I
just lost it and hit the wall. We had some pretty extensive damage to the
truck arms, and the SIRIUS boys did a good job repairing what they could so we
could get back out there and get as many points as possible."
But there were rays of light on this afternoon. For the fourth consecutive
weekend, Team SIRIUS collected five bonus points for leading at least one lap.
The No. 7 Dodge was able to pace the field around the 1.5-mile Texas Motor
Speedway during a cycle of green flag pits stops. Also, its return to the
track after extensive repair work in the garage enabled an improvement of seven
positions in the final finishing order.
STILL BARKING: The problem with the oil line dropped the SIRIUS
Dodge all the way to the 43rd position after just 11 circuits around the track.
But being the only car one lap down, Spencer was able to restart on the inside
of row one, and it paid off. The leading car of Bill Elliott succumbed to
a blown engine as the field went up to speed, bringing out the third caution
before the cars ever reached the backstretch. Spencer was able to keep
Mongo in front of the rest of the pack and beat the field to the yellow flag to
get his lap back.
From there, Team SIRIUS mounted a respectable charge. Spencer passed a
cluster of cars to climb to 31st. Pit sequencing and several accidents
helped elevate his standing into the top 25 by lap 168. He then won
battles with John Andretti, Joe Nemechek and Ward Burton to climb to 21st by lap
217.
TROUBLE ON THE FRONT: A green-flag pit stop on lap 223 (the Dog
Pound's sixth stop of the day) gave Spencer four fresh Goodyear tires, a gas
tank full of 76 Racing fuel, and adjustments to the air pressure and track bar.
But three laps later, it went all for naught. The No. 7 Dodge shook loose
coming out of turn four, and Spencer lost control of the spinning machine.
It hit hard against the outside wall twice, the second being the most severe as
it caved in the left rear quarter panel and bent the rear spoiler. That
was just on the surface. Underneath the sheet metal, the truck arms were
damaged, and the toe-in was knocked out to make the car nearly impossible to
drive. Under the orders of crew chief Tommy Baldwin, Spencer brought the
car behind the wall to the attention of the SIRIUS crew.
HAMMER TIME: The next 30 minutes were spent beating, banging and
taping the already battered race car. At the same time, car chief Trip
Bruce and mechanics Paul Jamison and Forrest Suddeth worked underneath the car
to repair the truck arms.
"NASCAR really only gives you one chance to fix your car, so we wanted to
make sure we got everything fixed before we sent Jimmy back out there,"
Bruce said. "You've got to make sure the car can run the minimum
speed, or (NASCAR) will tell you to load it up."
Fortunately, three caution flags flew during the time Team SIRIUS was in the
garage to slow the field, one of which involved a rather big accident on the
backstretch. That allowed Spencer to pick up seven positions on the track
once he finally returned.
"It was a long day, but we never gave up," Spencer said.
"I've got to take my hat off to the guys on the team. They kept working and
we got all we could. I think the car was pretty good at first, and we were
headed to another good finish, but that's racin'. We'll get 'em next week."
PIT NOTES:
* Spencer made several appearances over the weekend, starting with a breakfast
function for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA). Spencer spoke to
an audience of over 300, and joined Motor Racing Outreach founder Max Helton in
saluting the work of the FCA. On Saturday, Spencer joined Fox hosts
Darrell Waltrip, Jeff Hammond, and Larry McReynolds on "Trackside
Live." On Sunday, the SIRIUS driver spent nearly an hour signing
autographs and greeting fans at the SIRIUS Racing souvenir trailer, where of
course, the hot topic was Mongo!
"Everywhere I go these days, people want to talk about Mongo," Spencer
said. "It's really fascinating how that has caught on so quick.
Mongo is everywhere!"
* Jim Smith celebrated his 56th birthday on Friday, and did so with the people
he cares about most - his family and his team. Every member of the SIRIUS
Racing family joined Smith at a downtown Dallas restaurant, where he was
showered with gag gifts, stories, and a semi-delightful rendition of,
"Happy Birthday To You." Said Smith, "Lucky for me you guys
race better than you sing."
* With 691 points, Spencer fell to 24th in the NASCAR Winston Cup championship
points standings, and Smith dropped to 25th in the owner's points standings.
* Race eight of the 2003 Winston Cup Series season will take the SIRIUS Racing
Team to Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway for the Aaron's 499. That race will
be televised live on Fox at noon (ET).