Wheeler to step down as LMS president

Boss of Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte has overseen major growth at the track for 33 years

By DAVID POOLE - dpoole@charlotteobserver.com

H.A. “Humpy” Wheeler, one of stock-car racing’s great showmen, will take his final bows as president of Lowe’s Motor Speedway this weekend.

The Observer has learned that Wheeler is retiring from his post at the track where he has served almost equal parts as businessman and ringmaster since 1975.

“Great events people create the illusion that something is going to happen at an event that’s so great and unique that you’ve got to be there,” Wheeler once said when asked about his philosophy as a promoter. “Then they make that illusion become reality.”

Wheeler said Tuesday he could not officially confirm nor deny he will end his tenure at the track as he oversees his 33rd running of the Coca-Cola 600, NASCAR’s longest race.

But sources confirmed that Wheeler, 69, is leaving. He is working on a deal for a book about his more than 40 years in racing and will likely do more episodes of “The Humpy Show” for the Speed cable network, which aired a one-hour debut in January.

Howard Alden Wheeler played football at the University of South Carolina and was an amateur boxer, but a lifelong fascination with the automobile eventually won out.

He came to what was then called Charlotte Motor Speedway in 1975 after Bruton Smith regained control of the track Smith had helped build in 1960.

For the next 33 years, Wheeler helped make Lowe’s Motor Speedway a model for the modern race track and build Speedway Motorsports Inc. into a company with a market capitalization of $1.17 billion. Wheeler shared in the wealth. According to SMI’s annual report, Wheeler’s 2007 compensation totaled $1,185,258.

Lowe’s Motor Speedway has more than doubled its seating capacity to around 160,000 seats during Wheeler’s tenure. He was there when condominiums were built in Turn 1, when the track added a Speedway Club restaurant that’s open all year and when Speedway Motorsports Inc. went public.

Wheeler has been a friend, an advisor and a mentor to scores of race car drivers, some like Dale Earnhardt who went on to become the sport’s biggest stars.

Through it all, however, he’s kept his perspective.

“We’d had a great event and we were sitting there talking one day,” said Ed Clark, another former employee who now is track president at Atlanta Motor Speedway. “He looked at me and said, ‘Don’t start feeling too satisfied. If you do, put on some old clothes and walk down the street to see how many people will pick you up. You’ll quickly realize you’re no different from anybody else. Don’t get too proud of what you’ve done.’ ”