Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Spencer doesn’t take kindly to Busch’s payback bump

Tuesday, March 26, 2002 | 9:48 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

It took nearly five months, but Kurt Busch on Sunday finally made good on a promise he made to himself during last year's NASCAR Winston Cup race at Phoenix International Raceway.

While running for a potential top-10 finish in last October's Checker Auto Parts 500 at PIR, Busch had driven from his 41st starting position to as high as 12th place with 90 laps remaining. Following a late-race pit stop, Busch was in 14th place and moving toward the front when he spent several laps trying to pass the lapped car of Jimmy Spencer.

On lap 255 of the 312-lap race, Spencer tapped Busch's car in the rear after Busch had completed a pass and turned him sideways. Ryan Newman, who had nowhere to go as cars were maneuvering to avoid Busch, ran into the driver's door of Busch's car. Busch remained on the lead lap, but lost valuable track position when he pitted twice under the caution to fix the body damage. Busch had to settle for a 22nd-place finish.

"(Spencer) was changing lanes like an old lady changes slot machines when she ain't winning," Busch radioed to his crew at the time.

"He's got one coming -- it might not be today, it might not be this year, but he's got one coming."

Busch delivered his payback Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway when he tapped Spencer from behind and out of the lead en route to Busch's first career Winston Cup victory in the Food City 500.

Spencer, who said he would "not forget" what Busch did to him Sunday, apparently had forgotten about his run-in with Busch at Phoenix.

"I have no clue what he's talking about," Spencer said when told that Busch had brought up the Phoenix incident in post-race interviews Sunday. "I just look at it as when you start racing for victories (and) top fives, you'd better respect your competitors because it'll come back to haunt you pretty quick.

"All in all, I think you should have a little more respect for the guy leading the race. I didn't do it to him, and I don't think he should have done it to me, but that's life. ... Kurt Busch smashed right into me and that's OK; I never forget."

When Spencer passed Busch for the lead the lap before Busch got into the back of Spencer to regain the lead, Busch said he was setting up the 45-year-old veteran.

"I think if you're a fan, you look for a big race for the lead; you don't expect a leader to give it up and have the second-place guy pass him as easily as he passed us," Busch said. "I did slip, he took advantage of it and got underneath us, but it was what I wanted to do. I wanted to race him. I didn't want to just kind of lay over like a puppy and let him take it.

"He got underneath us in (turn) four and it developed through the next lap (and) we raced him on the high side. Coming down the front strip, I gave up and he was going in low so I knew he was going to have a hard time making that turn-one corner. We've all seen Dale Earnhardt slide back underneath people ... and that's what I thought we needed to do.

"(I) gave him a little tap just to let him know that we were going to be there, we were going to race him. He ended up sliding up the hill (and) we got back by him. That's part of racing at Bristol."

Gordon was fined $10,000 and placed on probation until Aug. 28 for running into Earnhardt on pit road following Sunday's Winston Cup race. Earnhardt was fined $5,000 for running into Gordon on the cool-down lap.

Harvick was fined $15,000 and placed on probation until Aug. 28 for going after fellow driver Greg Biffle following Saturday's Busch Series race.