Who's gonna fill them shoes?
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Can you dig it?
Like a lot of other folks, I was shocked to find out that Humpy was retiring immediately after Sunday's race. My phone's been ringing off the hook with folks asking me what I think. Bottom line, I don't know what to think.
It is ironic how this is working out because we had Humpy on our SPEED Trackside show last Friday. We interviewed him and I was astounded by how quiet and reserved he was. We had all been excited when we heard he was going to be on the show because you just know you are going to get a great interview. He will give you some insight in the sport plus you know you've got a guy who is always thinking outside the box. He sat next to me and we asked him about all the great ideas and promotions he had done for prerace shows in the past. But he just sat there and nodded his head, smiled and didn't really elaborate. It was totally uncharacteristic of the Humpy Wheeler we all know.
When the show was over, we went backstage and I told Jeff Hammond, Larry McReynolds and Steve Byrnes how surprised I was by how Humpy was acting. Humpy is just never that quiet. It just seemed like his mind was a hundred miles away and not on our interview. Trust me, something is up when Humpy Wheeler doesn't want to talk about his racetrack or what's wrong with NASCAR. It really bothered me.
Then to hear this week that he was retiring immediately after Sunday's race just worries me. Trust me, I am the king of seeing black helicopters — it's just the conspiracy theorist in me. Mike Joy, Larry and Jeff always kid me about being surrounded by black helicopters. So any time you hear a driver say he's not going anywhere, you kind of wonder about that. Any time you hear a sponsor say they are here to stay, you kind of wonder about that.
If they are having to say those things, then I'm wondering, "What's the rest of the story?" That's what I feel about this deal of Humpy's sudden retirement: What's the rest of the story? There simply has to be more to it than has been told at this point.
I love Humpy Wheeler. He has been the absolute inspiration for so many promoters for so many years. He got his inspiration from so many great promoters. You know all about the drivers and all the owners but do you know about people like Clay Earles, the owner and promoter of Martinsville Speedway? Or do you know Barney Wallace down at Darlington or L.G. DeWitt at Rockingham? How about Paul "Sow-Belly" Sawyer, one of the biggest characters ever in NASCAR? He dreamed of what that Richmond track could become and saw that dream come true.
I could go on ... Bob Bahre in New Hampshire. Richard Howard, who was here at Charlotte before Humpy took over. Enoch Staley at North Wilkesboro. Larry Carrier at Bristol and just so many more.
They were character after character after character who just loved the sport, were great promoters and did things to grow the sport. Humpy Wheeler followed in their footsteps. There's a great bunch of guys now following in Humpy's footsteps. Jeff Byrd up in Bristol is doing a great job. So is Eddie Gossage at Texas Motor Speedway, who is probably the guy closest to Humpy. Speedway Motorsports Inc. Chairman Bruton Smith sent Jerry Gappens from Charlotte up to run the New Hampshire track he bought from Bob Bahre.
These are all great promoters at tracks doing really well for Smith, so it's going to be interesting to see who takes over for Humpy here at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Marcus Smith, Bruton's son, is a great guy that I love a lot. He may be picked to step in.
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All I know is that Humpy Wheeler has been a great friend. He and Bruton Smith have taken our sport to another level. They put pressure on NASCAR and they put pressure on Daytona, they put pressure on other racetracks to get better and grow the sport. There will never be another H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler. He is a man that came up with so many different promotions and attractions to get you to buy a ticket.
Naturally, the one I will never forget is when they went down to Myrtle Beach and got a shark, brought it back to the track and hung it from the back of a wrecker. They then stuffed its mouth with a chicken and drove the wrecker all around the track. That's back when Cale Yarborough was calling me "Jaws" and Cale's sponsor was Holly Farms, the chicken processor. Cale and I had just had a couple "moments," shall we say, at Darlington and North Wilkesboro coming into Charlotte. Humpy put all that together and thought it was really something.
They were also the first speedway to light up a 1.5-mile track in 1992, which everyone said was impossible. They tried it and were successful. People said they were crazy to build condos at the racetrack. Now many racetracks have condos. So many things like that were considered bizarre and outside the box, but they did it, made it work and so many people then followed suit. Humpy and Bruton were quite a duo.
Humpy Wheeler has done a lot and he will absolutely be missed by many people including me and the fans. I am just trying to figure out, like I said, the rest of the story.
Oh by the way
Look for Sunday night's race to be a real grind. Don't expect to see the same kind of race we saw last Saturday night. Everybody knew last weekend they were going to run four 25 lap segments with a 10 minute break in-between. This Sunday's race will be unpredictable. Unlike Saturday, you won't know when the cautions are coming so some of those gambles and tire strategies won't play out. Now you might see some as we come down to the end of the Coca-Cola 600.
Also, you know what folks? I am getting kind of tired of these crew chiefs kicking back on these expensive pit boxes and not going for it. It was clear to me that Kasey Kahne's crew chief Kenny Francis was willing to gamble since there were no points involved. So why not roll the dice, right? Phoenix was where Jimmie Johnson's crew chief Chad Knaus was willing to put it all on the line and gamble on whether they had enough fuel and they won the race.
That's my kind of crew chief. Go for it, man! Make great calls in the pits, do something to help your driver win the race. If you have a driver who is driving his guts out, you need to help him. Don't follow the other crew chiefs. Think outside the box and help your driver win a race. Right now I have my driver hat on and I want a crew chief like Kenny Rogers. I want him to know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em.
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