20 Facts About Jimmy Means

Jimmy Means is currently an adviser for Front Row Motorsports and owns his own team, Jimmy Means Racing.

Jimmy Means competed in NASCAR for eighteen years in mostly his own equipment, posting seventeen career top-tens.

Jimmy Means made three career Busch Series starts in 1989, finishing 10th at Darlington Raceway.

Jimmy Means was part the Alabama Gang which included Bobby Allison, Donnie Allison, Neil Bonnett and Red Farmer and later Davey Allison, Hut Stricklin, Steve Grissom and Mike Alexander.

Since the nickname "Smokey" was already taken in racing circles, Jimmy Means' crew nicknamed him "Smut", the residue left behind by smoke.

Jimmy Means won dozens of late model races in Alabama and Tennessee in the early 1970s, including track championships at Huntsville Speedway and the historic Nashville Speedway USA.

Jimmy Means made his Cup debut in 1976 at the Daytona 500, driving the number five Chevrolet for Bill Gray.

Jimmy Means led one lap but finished 40th after an engine failure.

Jimmy Means ran an additional eighteen races for Gray in the number 52 car with sponsorship from WIXC, finishing in eleventh place twice.

In 1978, Jimmy Means began running as an independent driver, except for the Winston 500, where he drove for Bill Champion.

Jimmy Means had two top-tens and improved three spots to finish sixteenth in points.

Jimmy Means received new sponsorship from Mr Transmission, but only had one top-ten in 1979, forcing him to fall to 23rd in points.

Jimmy Means had the highest finish of his career in 1983, when he had a seventh-place run at Talladega.

Jimmy Means did not have a top-ten finish over the next two years, and he lost his Broadway sponsorship, picking up funding from Voyles Auto Savage in late 1986.

Jimmy Means dropped to what was at the time the lowest points finish of his career in 1988, and continued to struggle in 1989, failing to qualify for several races and dropping another spot in the standings despite a new sponsor in Alka-Seltzer.

Jimmy Means had already chosen to skip two races in favor of Bobby Hillin Jr.

Jimmy Means had planned to race again in 1994 for his own team.

Jimmy Means announced his retirement in the days following qualifying for the 1994 Daytona 500.

Jimmy Means continued to own NASCAR cars through the 1990s and 2000s, primarily in the Busch Series.

In 2012, he was a part-owner of the new Hamilton Jimmy Means Racing team, which fielded his traditional number 52.