He had "HATE" tattooed across one knuckle and "LOVE" across the other. You did not ask the late Bobby Isaac a lot of questions about why he did this or that, but I will guarantee you one thing: He would have loved every second of the spring races at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Isaac loved to race hard, and there were times when he loved to fight. "During the first three years of my racing career, I thought a fight after the checkered flag was just part of the show," he used to say. When promoters used to talk about their crowds being off, Isaac would suggest how he could fill the stands every race if NASCAR would just let him have his way for 15 minutes after each event.
Isaac explained his cooling off period. "One Monday morning, after a big fight, this guy from NASCAR called. 'Bobby,' he said, 'NASCAR can get along without you. Can you get along without NASCAR? Think about it?' I got the message immediately," Isaac said, "but I still think about what he said, especially each time I start to lose my temper."
As I said, Isaac would have loved Bristol in March. There was something happening just about every hour.
I guess Kevin Harvick opened the curtain during Saturday's Busch Series race when he took a chapter from Isaac's playbook. He waited on Greg Biffle to get out of his car and then-WHAM! Biffle had spun Harvick and that was all the evidence needed for a trip to fist city.
By the way, among those of you old enough to remember, aren't the things they say about Harvick similar to what they said about Dale Earnhardt in 1979? Yes, I believe they are.
Anyway, at Bristol they race-and sometimes they carry it to the next step.
After Saturday's race, Jack Sprague was running down the racetrack toward Jimmy Spencer's pit stall. On the last lap, Spencer had been racing for the lead with Jeff Green when he accidentally bumped and spun Sprague.
A NASCAR official stopped Sprague short of Spencer's stall, and Sprague should thank the official. Have you ever watched doubles on a handball court? That's probably the way Sprague's head would have bounced around had he jumped into the confines of Spencer's pit. The Spencers, Jimmy and as many brothers as needed, would have played Ping-Pong with Sprague's nose.
Listen, the Spencer family, especially Jimmy and his father Ed, can be as gentle and kind as a spring morning. There is nothing they would not do for a friend, and there is not a warmer smile in the garage area, but don't upset the apple cart. The Spencers can make Ocean's Eleven look like The Three Stooges.
Ed Spencer raised a big family in Berwick, Pennsylvania. After Ed and his boys whipped and ran off all the crooks, bank robbers, bears and mountain lions in that part of the country, they turned to racing. I asked Jimmy once if he ever started a fight at a racetrack. "That's not a fair question," he replied. "I don't remember ever throwing the first punch, but I probably provoked the first punch being thrown a few times."