By Rick Houston
So here’s the story of how Jimmy Means came to be known as Smut … and it’s not what you think.
A huge fan of Smokey Yunick, Means read everything by the famed mechanic he could get his hands on. And when he continually quoted from Yunick’s work around the race shop, someone took it upon themselves to lay the new moniker on Means. There was already a Smokey, so they would call him Smut … the grimy residue left behind by smoke.
The nickname followed Means from short tracks in and around Alabama and Tennessee, all the way to the Winston Cup ranks. Never, Means insisted, did the nickname have anything to do with … well … the other kind of smut. This is Jimmy Means’ story … and he’s sticking to it.
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