Can't get over The Hump

The rumors are swirling through ESPN and several other sites that Humpy Wheeler is set to retire from his position with Lowe’s Motor Speedway. I guess that shouldn’t come as a total shock because he is 70 years old and has been doing this for 33 years. The thing is that for 33 years he’s been doing it better than anyone else. Take a minute and think about it. How many “promoters” come to your mind? There are some, but none that do it like Humpy.

The apparent torch bearer in the NASCAR realm is most likely Eddie Gossage. The problem with that is that his antics aren’t lovable and are anything but traditional. While Humpy is jumping on soap boxes and playing a carnival barker, Gossage is more like a salesman from a kiosk in the mall that won’t stop until you’re well out of range. While Humpy is blowing up buses and bringing out car devouring metal monsters, Gossage is putting bounties on helmet throwing and throwing up disparaging billboards.

It’s a totally different era now. Maybe Eddie has it right for today’s world of blogging and up to the minute television updates, but there was something “just right” about Humpy and the way he approached business. It was that throwback track promoter touch that made him so likeable to me, a link to the past that the younger generation of the France family has seemed to care so little about.

NASCAR has grown tremendously and for that I’m ever grateful. There are new fans, new opportunities, and entirely new ways to enjoy the sport we all love. In order to move forward we’ve had to shed some of the tradition and I’ve come to accept it. The crops of driver’s who had to work all week on their cars in order to have them ready for the weekend are thinning to near nothing. Every kid with an ounce of talent is signed to a development deal in the womb and given equipment that is worth more than some teams made in the 80’s. The times are changing and if I’m going to lose my links to the past I at least want them to exit with respect. If not for the Humpy Wheelers of the sport then I have no doubt that I wouldn’t be able to enjoy this sport the way I get to on a daily basis.

Have fun in retirement Humpy, you’ve earned it.