Former Driver Doesn’t Know The Word Quit

FOREST CITY, N.C. — Still nestled here, almost downtown, is a quaint building that houses the race shop of Jimmy “Smut” Means.
Means, who’ll be 58 years old next month, has lived here long enough that he feels right at home in this western North Carolina community on U.S. Highway 74.
Means left his home in Huntsville, Ala., in 1982 to move here, seeking to build a successful career in motorsports.
He’s still trying today and hasn’t had much more success than he had 30 years ago.
“I’ve done things on a small budget for years,” says Means, “but I’ve always managed to keep going. I love the sport and don’t have any intentions of quitting unless I can’t manage it any more.”
Today, Means runs a NASCAR Nationwide Series team with Derrike Cope driving his No. 52 race car. He’s done that for close to eight years with little success.

FINAL TOUCH: Jimmy Means makes an adjustment to the No. 52 Chevrolet at Phoenix Int’l Raceway. (HHP/Harold Hinson Photo)

It’s a low-budget operation, compared to most of the other full-time Nationwide teams.
“I think I’ve got more invested in one fuel cell for that race car than I’ve ever had in a complete race car before this,” said Means. “We try to survive and keep going on what we make out of race purses, but it’s not what it use to be and it’s getting awful hard to keep going without full-time sponsorship help.
“I don’t know how much longer I can survive and go on like this. They’re not making it any easier for the one-car, independently owned race teams. It’s all so big business, even in the Nationwide Series, today.”
Means has fought an uphill battle ever since he ran his first NASCAR Cup race in 1976.
“I had done fairly well and won a lot of races before I came to Cup,” said Means. “We were running short-track races at Nashville (Tenn., the old fairgrounds speedway), Huntsville and Birmingham (Ala.).” Means was the track champion at Huntsville and Nashville before moving up to Cup competition.
“Like a lot of people back then, we didn’t have the necessary financial backing to get one of NASCAR’s top rides and it just kept getting harder and harder for us the longer we went.”
A lot of people kept wondering what Jimmy Means might have done in a better ride than his No. 52 independent Means Racing Pontiac.
Finally, toward the end of his Cup driving career, Rick Hendrick gave Means an opportunity in his No. 25 Chevrolet. It was something a lot of people looked forward to.
At the time, Hendrick was only running the car part-time, waiting to see what happened to the ailing Tim Richmond.
The late Harry Hyde was still the crew chief for the No. 25 at the time, without sponsorship.
“We qualified fifth for that race,” said Means. “Then, right off, we got into a wreck and that was it. That was my big opportunity and I failed.
“But it gave me an opportunity to work with Harry Hyde and he was a heckuva man. He told you like it was and never pulled any punches.
“I wish I could have driven more races for Harry.”
The dream of many to see what would happen to an independent in a big-time car ended without fanfare.
In 1988, it looked like Means might pull out of things when he got some sponsorship help from Eureka Vacuum Cleaners. He finished 30th in points that season. Means pursued additional financial backing in ’89, but it didn’t work out.
Eventually, Means had to quit driving and go to work as a mechanic for Bud Moore’s No. 15 Ford team, located in Spartanburg, S.C., not too far from Means’s Forest City home.
That didn’t last much longer either, as Moore lost his sponsorships and had to shut his doors, selling off the equipment and the shop of one of NASCAR’s original Cup teams.
Means came up through the hobby and sportsman ranks in Alabama and Tennessee.
And he never forgot his upbringing.
He was a little upset about the fact that he never made it into the Alabama Gang.
“I called it the Hueytown Gang, not the Alabama Gang because that’s where they all were from — Bobby Allison, Donnie Allison, Red Farmer, Neil Bonnett — all from Hueytown.
“I wasn’t in the gang, so to speak, but they knew I was there, and they knew I belonged.
“Neil and I were awful close and when he got killed (at Daytona Int’l Speedway), that was enough for me. I decided it was time for me to do something else.”
The driving career for the man nicknamed “Smut” was coming to an end.
The nickname came about in 1969.
 Fooling around with engines on a race car, Means was intrigued with late engine builder Henry “Smokey” Yunick.
“I was always walking around, citing something about engines that ‘Smokey’ might have said,” said Means. “A friend of mine heard me one day and said, ‘You’ll never be a ‘Smokey,’ but I guess you could be a ‘Smut.’
“Well, Bobby Allison got wind of the ‘Smut’ bit, and when I moved up to Cup, he made sure it stayed with me, and it’s been here ever since.”
Like a handful of other Cup drivers at the time, Means totaled more than $1 million in career earnings without winning a single race.
“It’s just not as much fun as it used to be,” said Jimmy “Smut” Means.