77 Facts About Humpy Wheeler

Humpy Wheeler is best known as the former general manager of the Charlotte Motor Speedway, a 1.5-mile banked racetrack in Concord, North Carolina.

Humpy Wheeler is a major auto racing promoter and businessman, particularly in stock car racing and IndyCar racing.

Humpy Wheeler abruptly retired from the position in May 2008, a decision that was seen as shocking to most of the NASCAR landscape.

Humpy Wheeler is regarded as a pioneer in promoting in the motor racing industry.

Humpy Wheeler was involved in a years-long rivalry with Bruton Smith, the chief executive officer of Speedway Motorsports, Inc, the company that owned the Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Humpy Wheeler, who had worked under Smith since 1975, retired from his position at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in 2008 due to disagreements with Smith, a decision that was seen as a surprise in the NASCAR landscape.

Humpy Wheeler heavily criticized both NASCAR and Smith for the next 12 years.

Humpy Wheeler was born in Belmont, North Carolina, on October 23,1938, to Howard Augustine Humpy Wheeler Sr.

Humpy Wheeler's father was the athletic director and the football head coach at Belmont Abbey College, and often took Wheeler to games.

Humpy Wheeler often imagined during games how to improve the quality of the events.

Humpy Wheeler attended Charlotte Catholic High School, a private preparatory school that was connected to Belmont Abbey.

At Charlotte Catholic, Humpy Wheeler was known as a jock who had won numerous debate contests.

Humpy Wheeler stated that he learned most of his life lessons from his mother, who owned a mercantile store.

Humpy Wheeler inherited the moniker "Humpy" through his father, when his father was caught trying to buy a pack of Camel cigarettes during a football practice session with the Illinois Fighting Illini.

Humpy Wheeler was hesitant to inherit the moniker, as he wanted a different identity from his father.

Humpy Wheeler had tried on numerous occasions to remove the moniker, due to numerous companies not wanting to hire Wheeler due to nickname.

The business became successful, and Humpy Wheeler eventually began to hold and promote weekly bicycle races.

Humpy Wheeler watched his first auto racing event in 1949 at the age of 11 at the Charlotte Speedway.

Humpy Wheeler later found out from an older friend of his that the car was racing in a stock car race held at the speedway by Bill France Sr.

Humpy Wheeler had gotten a scholarship to join the Michigan State boxing team, but the scholarship was later revoked after Michigan State's conference, the Big Ten Conference, entirely withdrew from boxing after a conference boxer died.

Humpy Wheeler accepted a football scholarship to play for the University of South Carolina in February 1957 as a left guard.

Humpy Wheeler graduated from South Carolina in 1961, double majoring in journalism and political science.

Humpy Wheeler gained his first job in 1956, working as a publicity supervisor for the Allstate Racing Association.

Humpy Wheeler later bounced around numerous publicity jobs, including being the publicity director for the Dixie Auto Racing Company, the International Timing Association, and the University of South Carolina athletic department.

Humpy Wheeler was the assistant publicity manager of Darlington, South Carolina-based Darlington Raceway, working under Russ Catlin.

Humpy Wheeler worked for The Columbia Record until he graduated from South Carolina.

In February 1964, Humpy Wheeler was announced by The Charlotte News to have been hired by the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company to be the company's new public relations representative for their racing program.

In 1970, Humpy Wheeler left the company after Firestone closed its public relations office in Charlotte.

Humpy Wheeler then moved towards promoting the North Carolina tourism industry and economy, hoping for Charlotte to be a major East Coast seaport by 2000.

Humpy Wheeler was able to attract then-President of the United States Gerald Ford to the celebration.

Shortly thereafter, Howard felt threatened for his position due to Humpy Wheeler's hiring, with the local North Carolina media predicting that Humpy Wheeler would most likely be the final piece for Smith to complete a takeover of the speedway's control.

Humpy Wheeler stated his desire to expand NASCAR to a national market, when the league mainly had stuck to a Southeastern market at the time.

However, during a press conference that was scheduled to announced the undercards to the title fight, Humpy Wheeler stated that he and Top Rank would never promote another boxing match in Charlotte, stating that he had thought the Charlotte Boxing Commission demanded too much revenue from the fight.

In 1987, Humpy Wheeler directed the construction of a private club and restaurant named The Speedway Club.

In January 1989, Humpy Wheeler announced the creation of the NASCAR Sportsman Division, a series that had the stated goal to give drivers who were accustomed to short track racing some experience on bigger speedways, such as superspeedways.

On November 28,1995, Humpy Wheeler announced his plans to leave the series, leaving it in control of NASCAR, who quickly disbanded the series by the end of 1996.

In 1995, Humpy Wheeler became the president and chief operating officer of the newly incorporated Speedway Motorsports, Inc, started by Smith.

In January 2008, Humpy Wheeler stated his desire to host regional open auditions at the speedway for the eighth season of American Idol.

On May 21,2008, days after the 2008 NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race, Humpy Wheeler announced his retirement from his position as president of the Charlotte Motor Speedway due to numerous disagreements with Bruton Smith, with the retirement effective after the 2008 Coca-Cola 600.

The decision was seen as both shocking and abrupt to most of the NASCAR landscape, with most having thought that Humpy Wheeler had left too early.

Almost three months after his retirement from the Charlotte Motor Speedway, Humpy Wheeler announced the founding of The Humpy Wheeler Company, a management consulting firm that focused on both motorsports and general sports.

In 2009, Humpy Wheeler was rumored that he was seeking a management job at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway after he had skipped attending the 2009 Coca-Cola 600 and the celebration of the Charlotte Motor Speedway's 50th anniversary in favor of attending the 2009 Indianapolis 500.

In 2010, Humpy Wheeler authored an autobiography along with Peter Golenbock named Growing Up NASCAR: Racing's Most Outrageous Promoter Tells All.

The book featured stories of certain promotions held by Humpy Wheeler told from his perspective.

In 2011, Humpy Wheeler was announced as an advisor to the proposed Grand Prix of America, a Formula One street course race proposal that would have taken place near Port Imperial, New Jersey.

On October 9,2013, Humpy Wheeler founded Speedway Benefits, a marketing and advertising partnership that sought to combine short tracks across the United States into a single body for the purposes of contract negotiations with suppliers, advertisers, and business partners.

Humpy Wheeler has pulled off numerous stunts, pre-race shows, and directed several renovations for the speedway to attract fans.

In 1980, Humpy Wheeler proposed a demolition derby featuring NFL players driving cars that were colored in their team's color.

At the 1978 World 600, Wheeler made an attempt at entering Willy T Ribbs to attract more black fans to go to the speedway.

In later interviews, Humpy Wheeler denied that he had attempted to bring in Ribbs as a way to promote the speedway.

An unrealized promotion that was Humpy Wheeler's stated "dream promotion" was a fight between a man and a shark on the frontstretch of the speedway, where one opponent must die in the fight for the other to be crowned the victor of the fight.

Humpy Wheeler had proposed to bring in marathon swimmer and Gastonia, North Carolina, native Moon Huffstetler to kill a shark.

When Humpy Wheeler suggested the promotion to Gossage in Humpy Wheeler's office, Gossage predicted that the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals would heavily protest the event.

Humpy Wheeler asked Gossage to hire fake demonstrators if PETA did not show up.

Humpy Wheeler decided to cancel the race due to the deaths, stating that "it was the only thing to do".

Humpy Wheeler played the role of Tex, the boss of fictional sponsor Dinoco in the 2006 animated film Cars.

Humpy Wheeler managed to land the role during the movie's pre-production in 2000, when Cars director John Lasseter visited the Charlotte Motor Speedway for the 2000 UAW-GM Quality 500.

Lasseter, who liked Humpy Wheeler's voice, gave him the role of Tex.

Humpy Wheeler reprised the role in 2017 for the movie series' third adaptation, Cars 3.

Humpy Wheeler appeared in the season three finale of American Pickers, an American television show that is dedicated to the restoration of old Americana artifacts.

Humpy Wheeler married Patricia Adele Williams on May 12,1962, in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The Humpy Wheeler family used to live in a lakefront home in Mountain Island Lake, having moved there in the late 1990s from Lake Norman.

Humpy Wheeler is a devout Catholic, having been in the Catholic Church since birth.

Humpy Wheeler's father was a Catholic and his mother was a Southern Baptist when Wheeler was born.

Humpy Wheeler described his early life as "tough" due to himself being a Catholic in an extremely Protestant area.

Humpy Wheeler is regarded as one of the foremost and revolutionary race promoters in auto racing.

Former president of NASCAR, Mike Helton, stated that Humpy Wheeler took promotion "to a new level".

In 1991, Humpy Wheeler wrote a private letter to Smith, stating that a relentless pace of expansion and work done on the speedway had burnt out the speedway's executives and had begun straining employees' relationships with their families.

On May 21,2008, Humpy Wheeler announced an abrupt retirement from his position as president of the Charlotte Motor Speedway after the 2008 Coca-Cola 600 race weekend and announced that he would no longer be affiliated with the speedway, a decision that was seen as a shock to most of the NASCAR landscape.

Humpy Wheeler stated that the decision was sudden, and that he had hoped for a part-time position with the track.

Smith stated that he had offered Humpy Wheeler a consulting job.

In 2010, Humpy Wheeler stated that he had left his position due to the initiation of new projects on the speedway that were started by Smith without Humpy Wheeler's knowledge.

In 2012, Humpy Wheeler stated that he was "at war" with Smith again, arguing over who had created the idea to install lights at the Charlotte Motor Speedway.

In 2012, Humpy Wheeler stated that modern NASCAR drivers had "lost touch" with core audience of NASCAR, feeling that drivers had become too clean and corporate.

The next year, Humpy Wheeler made comments on NASCAR's declining popularity on his personal YouTube channel.

In 2020, Humpy Wheeler decided to make an attempt to cool down tension with Smith by visiting Smith's house.

Humpy Wheeler stated that he had missed Smith, stating that "we were like brothers, and I missed the debates".