Spencer trying to recapture winning feeling

Mike Harris

Thursday, May 4, 2000 | 8:36 a.m.

The lowest point in Jimmy Spencer's career came when he decided last month that his team might be better off without him.

So he told co-owner Travis Carter that he would step out of the car for a few races if it would help turn the team around.

"I knew exactly how he felt," Carter said. "I was just as frustrated as he was, and so were most of the guys on this team."

Spencer, who as a star more than a decade ago in Northeast modifieds earned the nickname Mr. Excitement, hasn't been creating much of it for a while.

Since getting his only two Winston Cup victories for Junior Johnson in 1994, Spencer has been driving for Haas-Carter Motorsports without much success. In his five-plus seasons with the team, Spencer has two second-place finishes among just eight top-fives.

Now, after Carter convinced him that he was the best man for the job, Spencer has begun to move ahead in the team's Fords. Driving a new Taurus, he finished fifth - his first top-10 of the season - April 16 in Talladega, Ala.

Next, he qualified on the outside of the front row and ran among the leaders most of the day last Sunday in Fontana, Calif. But he hit the wall late in the race and wound up 40th, a miserable end to an otherwise-good day.

"It's dismal when you're running real good and this happens," he said as he prepared for what he hopes will be a happier ending Saturday night in Richmond, Va., in the Pontiac Excitement 400. "You don't mind when you're not running real good, but this time we had a really good car again, like we did at Talladega.

"That's what we have to take with us from this."

The change in performance and attitude came in the week between the races in Martinsville, Va., and Talladega.

After Spencer's meeting with Carter, the team took a hard look at the situation. The most intense focus was on the cars it had been building.

"We realized that our cars didn't like look other Tauruses," Spencer said. "I wasn't happy and neither was anybody else.

"It was almost an argument between the crew and me. I thought, 'If they don't do something, I might as well leave.' I told those guys the engines were good but the cars were turtles."

Carter and crew chief Donnie Wingo agreed, and decided to make some immediate changes.

"We've learned a lot about the bodies with some help from Ford," Spencer said. "They've given us some serious wind-tunnel time, and the new version of the car is just better bodies."

Spencer said the team is committed to contending every week.

"We need to hammer out a lot of top-fives," he said. "That's what it's going to take to get us back to consistent upfront runs."

And Spencer, once thought of as a wild, unpredictable driver, figures he's ready to take advantage of the situation once the teams gets there.

"I'm probably a lot smarter driver than I was in the past," said the 43-year-old former high school football star from Berwick, Pa. "Cars today don't warrant the aggressive driving style of three, four years ago. You abuse them and they go away a little bit."

Much of it has to do with preserving tires, he said. Whatever the reason though, it appears Spencer and his team are on the right track now.

"Jimmy is a whole different person," Carter said. "He knows where we're headed with the car, with the construction and everything. I don't think we're ready to win yet, but we're capable of running in the top 10 or 15."

Spencer agrees, saying the team should be consistent with a strong car.

"We're going to do nothing but get better," he said.

If that's true, look for Mr. Excitement to reappear very soon.