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By MARK FITZHENRY; Times Leader Sports Writer
Monday, June 22, 1998 Page: 1C
LONG POND- The car was “absolutely junk” the day before, according to the
crew chief. Jimmy Spencer’s starting position, for the third week in a row,
could be described the same way.
Spencer, a Berwick native, nonetheless picked up his fifth top-10 finish of
the season by placing 10th at Sunday’s Pocono 500. The five top 10s surpass
last year’s total of four.
Despite starting in the 34th position, Spencer was in the top 10 after 80
laps. He passed John Andretti on the first turn with seven laps to go and kept
the 10th position the rest of the way.
Spencer had plenty to overcome Sunday. Besides starting near the back of
the 43-car field, he was driving with a car that he and his crew weren’t happy
with. Plus there were nine cautions and a 71-minute rain delay.
“We’ll take our top 10,” Spencer said as he rushed out of Pocono
International Raceway with family members. “We’re better than that. A lot of
guys put tires on, a lot of guys got track position. That’s the key.”
Spencer remains on pace to top his previous best single-season earnings
($1.09 million in 1996). He unofficially has earned $948,541 this season.
Sunday marked Spencer’s first top-10 finish in nearly two months; he was
second at the DieHard 500 in Talladega, Ala., on April 26. He unofficially is
ninth in the Winston Cup points standings, which if he continues will surpass
his career-best 12th-place finish of 1993. (The money and points totals aren’t
official until today).
His record is more impressive when Spencer’s poor qualifying times are put
into the mix. He has finished at least 20 spots better than his starting
position in six races this season, tying him with Bobby Hamilton for the most.
In his last three races, Spencer’s average starting position has been 34th.
His average finish has been 13th.
“Our races have been better than our qualifying,” crew chief Donnie Wingo
said. “Our qualifying’s been awful bad. And it’s really hurt us. It hurt us
today. Starting so far back, you have to beat each car so bad just to get
caught up.
“It kills us. That’s three weeks in a row we’ve qualified bad.”
Wingo also wasn’t pleased with how the team’s Ford car was running in
Saturday’s practice.
“Before the race started (Sunday), we changed everything but the rear
springs,” Wingo said. “We were just bad. We were junk. But we got it better
and we got it pretty good during the race.”