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Cigar All-Stars
What are some of the greatest athletes and coaches in sports doing when they're not competing? Enjoying a cigar, of course.
CA Staff
From the Print Edition:
Bill Murray, Nov/Dec 2004
(continued from page 8)
He's the second highest paid athlete in the world, earning $80 million a year, and he likes nothing better than sitting down with a Partagas 8-9-8 following a race. So what's not to like about Michael Schumacher? The 35-year-old head driver for the Ferrari Formula One race team has won seven world championships and more than 82 checkered flags in 14 years of racing. It's doubtful anyone will ever match his achievement, and his career is far from over.
Schumacher is less known in the United States due to the lack of Grand Prix races here, but his following is massive around the world. Some racing fans have said he's made Formula One boring because he almost always wins, but no one can deny he's a superb driver with uncanny reflexes and mind-blowing ability.
"Off the track, he is just like just another guy," says one official with Formula One. "He enjoys his family and friends and likes nothing better than a good party." And a good cigar.
—James Suckling.
Jimmy Spencer
When Jimmy Spencer is behind the wheel, he's "Mr. Excitement," an aggressive driver who's won the Pepsi 400 at Daytona and the Sears Diehard 500 at Talladega. Away from racing, he's a friendly, candid man who enjoys time at his North Carolina home with his family, a splash of Wild Turkey and a cigar.
He's also an avid golfer and admits there's no better place to fire up his favorite Dunhill and Punch, especially with so many antismoking laws sweeping the country. "It's awful that you can't go into a lot of places and enjoy a cigar," says the straight-talking Spencer, "and that owners aren't given the choice."
Around the track, Spencer rarely smokes, but chews on cigars instead. He allows there's an image that NASCAR likes racers to maintain and he's happy to comply. But with 80 top-10 finishes, 28 top-5 finishes and three pole positions in his Winston and Nextel Cup career, a cigar every once in a while is well deserved.
—Michael Marsh.
James Toney
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