Classic Jimmy Spencer
Written by Josh Katinger · October 27, 2004
Boorish, pig-headed, stubborn to the point of foolishness - all things that have described Jimmy Spencer in the past. All things that held true Sunday night as Jimmy Spencer was arrested at his home on Cornelius, NC. Spencer interfered with police who were trying to serve a warrant on his son, Johnathan. He was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting a police officer. Consequently, he has lost his Nextel Cup ride in the #4 Morgan-McClure Chevy.
NASCAR.com: Spencer released from Morgan-McClure
ThatsRacin.com: Morgan-McClure fires Spencer
News14Charlotte.com: NASCAR driver arrested, charged
Video: News 14 Charlotte Report
So, if I was a father and some cops came to arrest my son, I would certainly have some questions to ask and might even get mouthy with the cop if I felt my son didn’t do anything wrong. But would I put my hands on a cop? No way.
Now let’s suppose that I was a “public figure” such as a driver in NASCAR’s top series. All the more reason to not escalate an issue that my son has gotten himself involved in to something that drags my name through the mud and consequently that of my team/sponsor. But not ole’ “Mr. Excitement!”
Here’s how I figure (MY OPINION, NOT FACTS) this whole deal went down: cops show up to arrest Jimmy’s kid, Jimmy says “bullshit, my son didn’t do it.” Cops say “we’re just doing our job sir, and, oh by the way, we also have a warrant.” Good old pig-head then proceeds to escalate matters with something along the lines of “over my dead body cop.” As the cops proceed to try and take the boy away, maybe Jimmy even put his hands on the cop to keep them from taking the kid away…at which point everything is fair game.
Why couldn’t Jimmy have let the arrest occur, then gone down to the station and bailed the kid out, signed a few autographs and kept the whole deal quiet? For the same reason that he drives for low end Cup teams and will never reach the level of success of other competitors who are lesser race car drivers, but have cooler heads on their shoulders do. One, they know how to behave like human beings which Jimmy clearly doesn’t. Two, they think before they act.
What are we going to do with you Jimmy?
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Maybe Robbie Gordon will sign him as his second driver on his new Cup team!
A perfect father and an even better role model!
This is probably the end of the road for him eh? Too bad. I like him on Monday nites, always spouting off on something. I wonder if he’ll still have that gig…asf
You have one scenario. I have another:
Jimmy comes home from finding out a friend has lost most of his family, including his only son, in a plane crash. He is obviously upset and feeling like holding his own son close and thanking God he is still here. In the middle of the night (11:20 P.M. I believe) a cop shows up at Jimmy’s door with a warrant to arrest that son for a misdemeanor crime that happened 3 weeks previously. Jimmy suggests that perhaps tomorrow morning would be a better time and volunteers to take his son down to the police station himself at that time. The cops say no he has to come now! Jimmy prostests and gets himself arrested as well for interfering with a policeman in the performance of his duty.
Whose scenario is correct?
I say let’s wait for the facts before reporting on them.
Betty Hennigar
Nova Scotia, Canada
Thanks for the posting Betty…that is a VERY likely scenario…but my point is…even if you scenario is correct…the last part where “Jimmy protests” and puts his hand on a cop still illustrates my point. He doesn’t know when to restrain himself and becomes a liability to himself! Thanks for posting and sharing your thoughts Betty, instead of just emailing me personally and swearing at me like most of the Spencer fans are doing. :)
I havent seen anything that says Jimmy actually “put his hands” on a police officer. It says he interfered with the police and then resisted arrest. That could mean he stood between the cop and his son and then shrugged off the police when they put hands on him to arrest him. It is all in ones interpretation of the words used.
Screw you, Josh.
(i kid, i kid).
As loose of a cannon as Spencer is, this surprises me. Sure, Jimmy’s impulsive. But my guess is that he came up against one of those police officers who, whether due to a deep-seeded insecurity or just being a garden-variety assh*le, behaved in a provocative manner.
Many otherwise mellow folks have been provoked into doing something stupid by someone with absolute power and a really crappy attitude. I’ve gotta give Jimmy the benefit of the doubt on this one.
Muddy, you just beat me to the post! My point is very similar.
When it comes to taking sides with a citizen or a cop, I will side with the public almost every time. I am not a big fan of law enforcement when it comes to domestic family type situations: I believe most of the time the cops inflame the situation then hammer whoever has the nerve to stand up for their rights. Most of us, who don’t run into legal problems beyond speeding infractions, just don’t clearly understand the limits of how far we can go.
This guy really needs to calm down and come around to reality. A role model…geesh!! Obviuosly, anyone that thinks that doesn’t keep up with racing. He’s like a big spoiled brat. Josh, thanks for opening the conversation. However, I believe you could be wrong on how it went down. I think it probably went down like this: The cops come for Jonathon, who’s done what guys do, get into trouble. Jimmy rolls himself away from the table wiping the pig grease off his face and sees the cops. He goes into a rage to protect his doughnuts and gets himself into a “sicheashen”. That’s probably what happened.
Thanks Josh…geesh Josh. Lol…
Jimmy does some mighty fine charity stuff by the way. But that doesn’t mean we have to like him. ;)
#48 is the best Jimmie
gudolboy, What is a good role model? Maybe its a guy who gets convicted of drunk driving (Wimmer). Goes home and hides under the bed and lets his wife lie for him. Or a man defending his family. Jimmy spencer has more class in his little finger than most of the nextel puppets that are racing now.Even the silver spoon spoiled brat that you root for!!!
George-
I knew you were wise. :))
Tom-
I don’t know if “class” is an appropriate word to decribe Jimmy, but he is definitely one of the most “real” drivers left on the circuit. He has managed to survive in marketing-driven sport in spite of having a knack for offending practically every corporate interest involved at one time or another. I respect him for being real.
Mr. Excitement once again misread. Why does standing up for your son at 11:30 pm to a small town cop mean losing your job? Especially for a misdeameanor several weeks ago? Nascar needs Mr. Excitement to remind them of “the good ole days” when swapping paint was not a crime & big sponsors did not rule the roost. Every word on camera now is sponsor speak.
Put your, “Free Jimmy Spencer” t-shirts away. Make new shirts with “Spencer for Hire”.
I’m sad,
I’ll miss sitting in the bar with my friends on Friday goofing on Spensor’s qualifiying position. Being from Pa and hearing stories from his racing days at Port Royal drove me to being one of his biggest fans. I loved rooting for Spensor, he always raced his own little race back in the 30th position. I didn’t root for him to win I was just excited when he gained a spot. Spensor was great on Inside Nextel Cup. I watched every Monday when he was on, those were the only interesting ones, he was very blunt and opinionated. I always wondered why Waltrip kept having him on when it was obvious he would cringe and get discusted with Jimmy’s comments. It’s no wonder why he could never keep or acquire a descent sponsor. “Spensor for Hire,” is right. Spensor if you read this get your butt out there and beg M. Shepard or K. Shelmerdine to drive there cars. Hope you can at least retain your Bush ride with the Outdoor Channel in 2005.
I don’t know Mr. Spencer other than seeing him on Monday nights, watching him race and talk to the camera. I know I like and admire the man. I just do. I am a police officer and have arrested sons when their parents were present. It can be a touchy situation even with the coolest headed parents. I “want to” believe Mr. Spencer was caught at a bad time and or the situation wasn’t explained to him in a professional manner. We don’t really know what occured that night but it didn’t turn out so good. I do know this, Mr. Spencer will still be loved by his race fans, he will be more successful on the race track and he did what he thought was right that night. I think Mr. Spencer has alot of love for his son and this may have clouded his judgement.
Jimmy represents the days when N.A.S.C.A.R wasnt about gazillon $$$$ sponsers !!IT WAS ABOUT RACING!! so Jimmy speaks his mind! and dosn’t KISS ASS! THATS WHAT I LIKE ABOUT HIM!! Just because he’s not a young pretty” boy people like you. have to slam him.I WILL WATCH JIMMY IN TRUCKS, BUSCH , LAWNMOWERS WHATEVER HE RACE’S ..MY QUESTION IS WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO WITH YOU ”JOSH” HAVE YOU EVER WENT BACKWARDS AT 190MPH NOSE DOWN AT TALLDEGA JIMMY HAS SO WHY NOT PICK ON SOMBODY LIKE YOUR PEEWEE HERMAN RUBBER HEAD BUSCH BOY DENNIS GARLAT
!
dennis, you write like Sterling Marlin talks. I have no idea wtf you just said.
Josh, my experience as a law enforcement officer tells me that your scenario has a high probablity of being right on the money. It is always interesting to see the few folks who automatically attack the police when someone is arrested. These officers had a warrant for arrest in hand. This means that an independent party (usually a magistrate) determined that there was probable cause to believe a crime was committed and issued an arrest warrant. Maybe in Canada you can expect the police to arrest you when it is convenient for you. Think about it for a minute…the last thing that cops want to do is arrest a high-profile person, since they are all too familiar with the chuckleheads waiting in the wings to accuse them of wrongdoing. But sometimes officers are left with no other choice. As far as him losing his job as a result of this arrest, consider this…would Earnhardt or Gordon loose their ride if they were arrested in a similar incident? He lost his ride because he is a subpar driver with a reckless attitude.
I obviously don’t know what went on. I am just a Jimmy Spencer fan who is suggesting a possible alternative scenario.
BUT since you brought it up (”Maybe in Canada you can expect the police to arrest you when it is convenient for you. “) As a matter of fact in Canada we do not usually need to fear the police showing up at our doors in the middle of the night to arrest our children unless it is a serious crime. I apologise for assuming it was like that in America too.
I have been a Spencer fan as long as Jimmy has been racing having grown up watching his dad Ed at the Selinsgrove speedway when I was a kid. H might not have used the best judgement that night but it does not take away the fact that the guy can drive a race car. He came up the hard way and always won or was in the running. These young guys come up and step in top equipment and think they are Gods gift to racing.Morgan-McClure gave him junk to run and he at least put them in the show.
jimmy’s my HERO!!!
ALL I CAN SAY IS JIMMY IS STILL THE MOST REAL DRIVER IN THE BUNCH. I HAVE BEEN A SPENCER FAN FOR A LONG TIME,THE REST OF THE DRIVERS WON’T WIPE THEMSELVES WITHOUT SOME SPONSOR NAME ON THE PAPER THEY ARE USING!!!!!!! JIMMY IS STILL THE BEST IN MY BOOK,GIVE HIM A GOOD CAR AND CREW AND HE’LL PUT YOU IN FOR A GOOD SHOW!! GO JIMMY GO!!!
From what I have read about the arrest,Jimmy never touched the cop.You don’t have to touch a cop,just talking back will get you arrested for interfearing with a cop.What was the other charge disorderly conduct?Big deal.I think the author of this article should get his facts stright before he mouths off.Jimmy is an old school driver who races had on every lap,most of the time with lesser equipment.I guess all these new fans will be happy when they run the last of the real racers out of the sport.Thats when I quit watching.Nascar needs drivers like Spencer aka Mr.Excitement,at least I do….I wish everyone would quit acting like Jimmy assualted someone,he didn’t.Give me a break.Stick to the facts..Go Jimmy Go!!!
Oh! By the way.The police didn’t have a warrent.
Spencer is not a good driver anyway, everybody who likes Spencer, needs to wave goodbye, and find a new driver. Spencer will never be back, he doesn’t deserve too!!
all you guys suck
#8 rules
jimmy johnson and jeff gordon are the dirtiest racers on the track, and jimmy spencer shouldve been retired a long time ago