Prior to the start of NEXTEL Cup Series practice this morning, Tony Glover took time to discuss the recent passing of veteran NASCAR driver G.C. Spencer. Glover is the Team Manager for Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates and drivers Reed Sorenson, David Stremme and Raybestos Rookie Juan Pablo Montoya.

TONY GLOVER, TEAM MANAGER, CHIP GANASSI RACING WITH FELIX SABATES: “Our hometowns were like 20 miles a part [Glover is a native of Kingsport, Tennessee while Spencer called Jonesboro, Tennessee home] and when I grew up my Dad was in late model racing and G.C. was in Grand National Racing, which is now Cup, and late model was what is now Busch. I always heard of him and I kind of got to halfway know him a little bit and I guess in about 1981 I started a car building business. He came to my shop one day and talked to me one day about building him a Cup car and I felt quite honored that G.C. would ask me to build him a Cup car. It never did come to play. He couldn’t get the finances worked out. Anyway, in 1983 I went to work at Petty Enterprises and at the end of the year Kyle made me aware that Richard was leaving the following year going to Curb and Petty Enterprises was back down to one team. Along about that time my grandmother was really sick and about to pass away so I kind of wanted to move back to Tennessee for a while. So G.C. came along at the end of the year and he said ‘Hey, we’re going to start a Cup team. Morgan-McClure Motorsports is starting a Cup team and we’d like for you to come be a part of it.’ I agreed to do it and got to work with G.C. for quite a few years. He really was a legend. A lot of people in this sport now don’t know how good of a race car driver that he really was or some of the things that he did. He was not only a legend but a great man, certainly a great friend and certainly somebody that not only myself but the sport is really going to miss. I think G.C. was a big inspiration not only for myself but for all of the local racers that hey you can make it big and you can make a living at it because he was one of the few guys that I knew at the time that was just driving a race car, just in racing and using that as a form of income.” YOU AND G.C. SPENCER WORKED TOGETHER FOR A PERIOD OF TIME. “He was there [at Morgan-McClure Motorsports]. He was the one that hired me and when I came in I told him that I didn’t really want a title but I did wanted to be over the setups of the cars and I wanted to be over the pit crew and call the race. And so basically he allowed me to do that. He got a little aggravated early in the year over I’m not sure what, with the driver or what have you, and he quit and stayed gone for a couple of years. And then he’d come back and he’d work a while then he’d quit. It was an off-and-on deal with G.C. but I certainly valued all the time traveling with him up and down the roads, driving to and from the races and listening to all the stories and talking about the way the sport has evolved through the years. I remember one time in 1984 we left after the race in Atlanta and drove to California in a van. G.C. drove every step of the way, from Atlanta, Georgia to Riverside, California and we prepped the car in a motel parking lot. We turned it over from an oval car to a road race car. He was full of stories. He was really a fun guy to play poker with. He love to play poker and was just a neat guy.”