The Wide World of Dirt

As I went back to watch some older NASCAR races recently, I came across the 2002 Brickyard 400, a race won by Bill Elliott in his #9 Dodge for Ray Evernham.

While a majority of the coverage focused on the battle for the victory between Elliott and Rusty Wallace, what got looked over at the time was a dust-up between Chip Ganassi Racing veteran Jimmy Spencer and Roush Racing hotshot Kurt Busch.

On lap 36, Busch and Spencer raced for position on the backstretch. Busch executed what could only be described as a clean, contact-free pass of Spencer. Busch cleared up with about a half-car length between himself and Spencer before diving into turn 3.

It was then that Spencer dove his Target Dodge into turn 3 and through Busch’s Rubbermaid Ford, sending Busch sliding driver’s side into the outside wall, ending his day.

Busch made sure to let the broadcast know who the aggressor in the situation was on the track and off of it, giving an interview to TNT saying Spencer was, “…a decrepit old has-been,’ before correcting himself, “I guess he is a never-was.”

Busch and the broadcast were quick to note that this feud had been brewing for some time. A Winston Cup flashback flashed on the screen under the caution period showing Spencer and Busch’s most recent encounter at Bristol in the spring.

In that race, Dale Jr, the dominant driver of the day, and some of the other leaders headed to pit road after what would be the second-to-last caution of the race on lap 409.

This left eight lead-lap drivers between Jr and the lead, as well as a parade of lapped cars to his inside. Busch was the first of these lead-lap cars with Spencer looming in second.

Spencer’s career resembled a roller coaster to that point. An outsider from the northeast, he made his hay as a modified racer, snagging back-to-back championships in 1986 and ‘87.

He parlayed his success in the modifieds into a ride with Frank Cicci in the Busch Series where he scored a top-10 points finish in his first full-time season in 1988 before clinching his first win the following year at Hickory.

That same year, he moved up to Winston Cup, running a partial schedule for Buddy Baker, showing speed with three top-10s in 17 starts. This led to a few ill-fated seasons in Cup where he finished well when he could keep the car on the track before dropping back down to the Busch Series in the middle of 1992.

A revitalized Spencer made the most of his Busch ride with Dick Moroso by winning two races, allowing for him to get an opportunity driving for NASCAR legend Bobby Allison.

Spencer maximized the opportunity by scoring three top-5s in the final four races of 1992, including a 4th-place run at the season finale in Atlanta. This gave Allison and crew chief Jimmy Fennig the confidence to put Spencer in the car full-time for 1993.

1993 became a banner year for Spencer and Allison, locking up 12th place in points with 10 top-10s to boot. Instead of sticking with a crew he had chemistry with, Spencer left for seemingly greener pastures at Junior Johnson & Associates.

Piloting the #27 McDonald’s Ford Thunderbird, Spencer was confident that this would be his big break, but the only thing that broke was his race car.

Spencer racked up 11 DNFs on the season with seven of them being from crashes. While he did visit victory lane for the first time at Daytona in July, it was one of only three lead-lap finishes the 27 team could muster on the season, the other two being a 4th-place finish at Talladega and another victory when they returned to Talladega in the summer.

After missing one race that season due to injury and failing to qualify for the following race at Bristol, teammate Bill Elliott revealed he would be taking Spencer’s sponsor for 1995, all but sealing Spencer’s unemployment for the following season.

Travis Carter picked Spencer up and dusted him off again, this time with a more stable team for the veteran driver. A rough first season brought little positive results, but they returned for 1996, doubling their top-10s from the 1995 and finishing 15th in points.

Spencer’s time with Carter could explain why his career stats look like a heartbeat monitor. On most even years, the team performed well; they dipped back to mediocrity on odd years.

2001 seemed to be when Spencer was able to break out of routine. Sponsorship from department store giant Kmart allowed Spencer to have one of his best seasons yet, scoring eight top-10s in an uber-competitive field on his way to a 16th-place points finish.

This performance inspired new Cup Series owner Chip Ganassi to take a chance on the wily veteran in Spencer, who had garnered the nickname Mr. Excitement in the late 90s for his on-track reputation and off-track antics.

This included a notable incident in 1996 with Wally Dallenbach Jr where an enraged Spencer threw a punch into Dallenbach’s car after the two tangled on a restart at Dover.

As they mentioned on the Bristol broadcast, Spencer’s veteran teammate, Sterling Marlin, put two victories in the record book in the first five races of 2002, applying pressure to Spencer to break his long, winless drought.

Kurt Busch was also looking to end a long, winless drought, the same one Spencer and every driver before them had attempted to vanquish. Getting a win in NASCAR is no small feat, and getting your first one is always the hardest.

3,272 drivers have started a NASCAR Cup Series race at the time of this writing, and only 203 drivers have been good enough and fortunate enough to claim at least one victory.

Busch’s career exploded almost completely overnight. Getting his start in the Legends division, a bit of sour fortune allowed for Busch to enter the NASCAR Southwest tour in a competitive ride, left vacant by the tragic passing of promising star Chris Trickle.

After winning rookie of the year in 1998, Busch continued to dazzle, following it up with a series championship in 1999. This caught the eye of Jack Roush, who gave him an opportunity to drive his #99 Exide Batteries Ford F-150 in the Craftsman Truck Series.

The rookie made a great impression early on, finishing no worse than 9th in his first four races before four consecutive finishes outside of the top-10.

The 99 team managed to bounce back though, only finishing outside of the top-10 four times in the final 16 races while collecting wins at Milwaukee, New Hampshire, Dover, and Fontana.

His Dover victory earned him a bit of scrutiny from veteran racers as he and Mike Wallace came together with four laps to go while battling for the lead. Wallace dominated the day, but Busch made up the difference as the laps wound down.

It’s anyone’s guess who would’ve won that race had the accident not happened, but this was the first dent to Busch’s reputation.

That Dover weekend also marked his debut in the Winston Cup Series, driving the #97 John Deere Ford Taurus for Roush after Chad Little was fired for poor performance.

Busch got to finish out the season in the 97 car, running only the final seven races to retain his rookie eligibility for a future season. While his performance wasn’t spell-binding, he kept the car together and on the track, which was more than can be said for Little.

Jack Roush made the decision to keep Busch in the car for the 2001 season with very little established funding to start the season. Though not confirmed, it’s supposed that Busch was Dale Earnhardt Sr’s final recipient of the middle finger before his untimely demise.

The 97 team began the year in turmoil as crew chief Matt Chambers was replaced by Ben Leslie after the spring Bristol race. The addition of Leslie and a top-5 at Texas brought in much needed sponsorship for the team in Rubbermaid/Sharpie, who signed on for the remainder of the season.

Despite the first race going well, Leslie and Busch never quite gelled, finishing outside the top-20 in all but 10 of the final 30 races of the season.

Even a pole for the Southern 500 was undone by two accidents that took the 97 team out of contention. This started a downward spiral for the end of the season where the team finished better than 22nd once, including a DNQ at the penultimate race in Atlanta.

While it was a blip on the radar at the time, Spencer and Busch’s paths crossed in the desert. With under 60 laps to go, Busch passed Spencer cleanly entering turn 3 (I feel like I’ve heard this somewhere before), and Spencer sent the 97 for a loop, collecting a few other cars in the process.

Busch was able to recover for a lead-lap finish albeit ending the race in 22nd. Spencer, who was a lap down at the time of the accident, came home 31st still a lap behind the leader.

Busch’s performance wasn’t held against him. Roush Racing had a down year in 2001, with only Jeff Burton squeezing into the year-end banquet with a 10th-place points finish.

Roush decided to move some of his crew chiefs around, moving Ben Leslie to Mark Martin’s team and Jimmy Fennig (yes, that Jimmy Fennig) over to Busch’s team, still sponsored by Rubbermaid/Sharpie for 2002.

The 2002 season opened up with a top-5 at the Daytona 500 and four straight lead-lap finishes for the 97 team. While some problems hindered them from extending that streak at Darlington, the crew carried some of that early season momentum into Thunder Valley.

While qualifying didn’t go to plan, Busch and the team managed to pick their way through the field at the half-mile bullring, putting the 97 car in position to inherit the lead with 80 laps to go.

The first 20 laps of the run were issue-free as Spencer tracked down the Sharpie Ford. Spencer made a move coming out of turn 4 on lap 443, giving him the inside for turn 1.

Busch put up a fight on the outside with Spencer making light contact on the backstretch with Busch before entering turn 3. Spencer claimed the lead with 56 laps remaining, hoping to set sail for a long-awaited third victory.

There’s an old saying that race car drivers are much like elephants: they remember everything.

Kurt Busch knew how Spencer raced him at Phoenix the previous season, there is no doubt in my mind. This was Kurt’s best opportunity to cash-in on Spencer’s aggression.

Spencer entered turn 1 narrow, meaning his car would be vulnerable in the center of the corner. Busch backed off and took a wider line, slotting behind Spencer’s Target Dodge before striking the bullseye.

The two raced side-by-side briefly before Busch sideswiped Spencer’s Dodge on corner exit, completing the pass and sending Spencer sliding down to the apron out of control.

Spencer reigned the car in against all odds, holding on to second but falling several seconds behind Busch. He hoped and prayed for an opportunity to grab the lead yet again, and he got his wish with 20 laps to go when Hermie Sadler crashed.

This set up a 15-lap dash to the finish, lining Spencer up right behind Busch. Spencer was aided even more by his teammate in Marlin lining up as the first lap down car on the inside.

The green flag flew, and Busch shot out of a cannon. A clean restart paid dividends for Busch and ended all hope for Spencer, who said prior to the restart that he’d burned his tires off.

Busch secured his first victory in his 48th Winston Cup race; Spencer languished in second.

Both drivers talked about the other in their post-race interviews. Busch alluded to the previous year’s Phoenix race where Spencer dumped him as motivation for his actions. Spencer played the victim, saying that champions race cleanly for the lead and promising he wouldn’t forget this incident.

After their run-in at the Brickyard, it seemed like the dust would settle on the feud with Spencer feeling like he got Busch back for the Bristol incident by recklessly sending the 97 careening into the turn 3 wall driver’s side at one of the fastest tracks on the circuit.

Evidently, it wasn’t over.

At the summer Michigan race the following year, the two tangled again. Just like the Phoenix situation two years prior, Spencer was a lap down while Busch was on the lead lap.

A caution with 80 laps to go bunched the field up, putting Spencer and Busch near each other for the restart, and on lap 125, they made contact.

Spencer raced alongside the 5th-place car of Ryan Newman coming out of turn 4 with Busch following close behind. Spencer got a better run off the corner and surged ahead of Newman, allowing Busch to pounce. Busch overtook Newman and stayed a healthy distance away from the Spencer’s #7 Sirius Dodge.

Spencer chased Busch down the track and made light contact with Busch who took a swing back at Spencer later on the frontstretch. Busch later admitted that he was trying to flatten Spencer’s tire over the radio, but he misjudged the positioning of the cars and messed up his own fender.

Another caution later in the race brought the two close together again, but neither made contact this time around. It was the post-race scenes that made major news.

After the 97 car pulled into the garage area after a disappointing 20th-place finish, Spencer confronted Busch while he was still in the car. What happened afterward is strictly hearsay.

Spencer claims that Busch threatened his family, so Jimmy popped Kurt in the nose. This accusation is not purported by anyone else, so take it with a grain of salt as Spencer has time and again been known to be an unreliable narrator in recounting stories.

Busch’s side of the story is that there is no mutual respect between himself and Spencer, so the racing, language, and post-race actions reflect that. He also pointed out that his incidents with Spencer have just resulted in wrecked Roush Racing Fords.

NASCAR suspended Spencer for the following race at Bristol which Busch went on to lead 121 laps on his way to his third victory at Bristol in the last four races at the track.

Busch decided to stay mostly silent on Spencer’s suspension and the resulting fallout, opting to thank his sponsors and focus on the race.

The following week at Darlington, Spencer took an interview in his car prior to qualifying. While he appreciated the fan support, he acknowledged the incident and apologized for it.

In the years following, Busch and Spencer never tangled on-track again. Spencer faded into obscurity while Busch reached the highest of highs in the sport, winning the title in 2004.

The rivalry between Busch and Spencer further enhanced Spencer’s image of being a media darling, which he was able to parlay into an extended post-career as an analyst on Speed Channel. He spent his time with the channel continuing to publicly criticize Busch, who refused to engage with Spencer’s antics.

The fallout for Busch was being labeled by the fans as a crybaby and a punk. While other incidents certainly didn’t help him shake that image, it almost seems that Busch couldn’t do anything right when it came to the fanbase.

Even incidents where Busch was the clear victim, it was assumed that he deserved what was coming to him no matter the circumstance. Kurt’s image also beld over into his brother Kyle’s, putting a scarlet letter on the younger Busch for his whole career.

Roush Racing and Kurt Busch ended up with two wrecked race cars throughout this rivalry while Spencer got to soak in the limelight as his career wound down.

A recent interview with Dale Jr revealed that Spencer is still bitter about the incidents, saying he hoped that Busch’s neck snapped when Spencer wrecked Busch at Indy.

After a few tumultuous seasons, Busch landed on his feet at Stewart-Haas Racing in 2014, maintaining a friendly, squeaky-clean image in the years since while Spencer is fondly remembered by Sporcle players for winning two races in 1994 for Junior Johnson.