One-on-One with Humpy Wheeler

How are you occupying yourself since your retirement?

"I have a company (the Wheeler Company) with my son, Trip, and my daughter, Patty, runs Wheeler TV. We produce live TV shows for networks. I'm working with Fox and Speed. And I've got about half of a book with Peter Golenbock finished. I've been doing some work with a couple of tracks that are being built around the country, short tracks. And I'm doing some consulting work for a tire company that's involved in a big lawsuit. So I have plenty on my plate, enough to keep me out of trouble."

Tell us about the book.

"It should be out in the fall. I never knew how much had to be put into something like that, all the editing that goes on. We took a little different approach to it. It's not exactly a racing book. It's going to be called 'Son of the South.' I've been involved in a lot of things. It's basically my life, growing up in the South and doing business in the South."

Do you have a "bucket list?" And what's next on the list?

"Everybody ought to have a bucket list. I've been busy all my life and I'm going to stay being busy. I spend as much time at Seabrook as I can, but not as much as I want. But I enjoy Charleston and everything about it. I have a lot of friends down there. It's the greatest place on earth. I have my family up here. So I have the best of both worlds."

But your bucket list?

"I'd probably like to try and build a short track somewhere before it's all over. That's one thing I've been toying around with. I've never had an opportunity to work with my family, my kids, and the fact I'm able to do that now has really added to my enjoyment of life. Probably the thing that has mystified thousands and thousands of people is figuring out exactly how to fish in the Charleston area."

Favorite Charleston restaurants?

"Charleston is loaded with great restaurants. I like Magnolias downtown, Just Fresh at Seabrook and Fisher's and Rosebank at Bohicket Marina."

What's the biggest problem facing NASCAR?

"The fact we grew so fast in the '90s and early 2000s, which you have to do with a sport for it to become national. You have to have a 10- or 15-year strong growth curve. We went through that. NASCAR has plateaued right now. And that's going to happen. The reason sports soar is always exciting personalities. Personalities produce drama, and drama is what sells tickets. I think we're in great need of drama right now. I definitely think the potential is there. But it's going to take some bold moves to make that happen."

Best driver you ever saw?

"It's pretty much a tossup between (Dale) Earnhardt Sr. at his peak and certainly Cale Yarborough was right in there. Bobby Allison. I think in the early days, Tim Flock was probably the best guy I saw. Right now, I don't know that we have a better driver than Kyle Busch or Jimmie Johnson. They seem to be on top of their game. Carl Edwards is pretty strong in his own right."

Best driver who never made it big and why?

"The best short track driver that never made it big was probably "Little Bud" Moore from Charleston. He was just absolutely extraordinary on the short tracks. But on the big tracks, even though he certainly had some good rides, it just didn't happen ... On the other hand, Ralph Earnhardt wasn't raced against a lot. He didn't make it so-called big as far as bigtime NASCAR was concerned. We don't know the answer (to why they didn't make it big). There are reasons we haven't figured out yet."

What's your favorite NASCAR promotion?

"I think it would be the first invasion of Charlotte Motor Speedway by the Special Forces. It shocked the whole grandstand. They had no idea it was coming. It was right after the shortest war the U.S. ever fought, the invasion of Grenada. Most of the people that participated had been there. We flew those Apache and Chinook helicopters in and they literally came in from behind the grandstand, so people couldn't see them until they went over the crowd. Then they dropped the Airborne Special Forces guys on the ground with their howitzers to so-call capture the Speedway."

What was the inspiration for that?

"We were sitting around thinking, we've had the bands, fireworks, the stunts. What could we do that more people could see? I never did like concerts at the Speedway because just a few people can see little figures down there playing something. We thought something in the air would be spectacular. I went down to Fort Bragg and said 'You guys do maneuvers. Why don't you just do them at the Speedway, instead of at Fort Bragg where nobody can see them. They had so much success recruiting and got such good exposure they agreed to keep doing it. The first time was spectacular because very few people had seen an Apache helicopter up close, much less one firing (blanks) full force. Then there were the howitzers going off. It certainly did rattle the glass in the place."

On the other had, what was your biggest flop?

"We had a number of those. I think the biggest one was we were trying to break the Guinness Book of Records for the world's largest marching band. We needed 5,000 people. Before the October race, we got every high school and college band we could from about 350 miles out. We had them assembled on the backstretch. Half would march in one direction and half in the other, and they would assemble in the big grass area of the main grandstand. It turned out to be an 85-degree day. Jay Howard was assisting me. As they started marching in, it got hotter and hotter down on the asphalt. A few people passed out marching their way to the center, and when they all got to the center 18 collapsed when they began the first tune. Jay looked at me and asked: 'What do you want to do?' I said the show must go on. About two minutes later, about 40 of them hit the ground. He looked at me again and I said the show must stop. About 100 of them hit the ground then. After treating about 300, fortunately with no permanent injuries, the world's largest marching band disassembled very quickly."

What kind of football player were you at South Carolina?

"I was a good high school football player. I was small, but that was when you could play guard at 215 or 220. I sat on the bench most of the time, but I did get a letter. I got hurt my junior year, a real bad back injury, and the pretty much ended it."

Who was your coach?

Warren Giese was the head coach and Marvin Bass was the line coach.I enjoyed it, but I didn't enjoy the getting hurt part of it. One spring practice, after I got hurt, I went to Kingstree to box, a heavyweight match, and fought a guy from Brooklyn. I barely beat him and normally I would have no problem. Physically, I wasn't there. Giese said I had to do something to keep my scholarship and the next thing you know they had me assigned to do laundry. I went to him and asked about working in the sports information department and also got a job at the Columbia Record. That really helped turn me from the physical to the mental."

How did you get the nickname Humpy?

"That was actually my father's nickname. He was a guard on the Red Grange Illinois team. The coach, Bob Zuppke, caught him smoking Camel cigarettes and made him run around the field before practice. So his teammates started calling him 'Humpy.' I was 'Little Humpy' and then just became 'Humpy.' "

Care to make a prediction on today's Daytona 500?

"Yes. Expect a wild race at the end after a couple major pileups that will wipe out at least five major contenders. If they are around at the end, Earnhardt Jr., Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch will be the ones to watch. My pick: Busch to win and Ragan as a wild card."