Mike Helton doesn’t usually open pre-race driver’s meetings with comments. In fact, the president of NASCAR rarely speaks at them at all.
But he said he wanted to open the driver’s meeting prior to Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway “for a very special reason.”
Helton wanted to say a few words about H.A. “Humpy” Wheeler, who unexpectedly announced his retirement as president and general manager of LMS earlier in the week.
“Throughout your careers, you will be influenced – or have been influenced by – certain people,” Helton told the assembly of drivers, crew chiefs and team owners. “You may not even realize it at the time, but at some point in your life you look back on it and say, `Well, I learned this from so-and-so, and this from someone else.’
“Most everybody in this room has had that influence, even if you do not know it. And the gentleman who has offered up that influence for the past three decades is at his last driver’s meeting. And I wanted to be the one on behalf of all of NASCAR, the France family, and also on the behalf of Mike Helton, to say thank you to Humpy for being our host this weekend and for all the weekends previous, and thank you for your contributions in helping to build NASCAR into what it is today.”
Then Helton invited Wheeler to speak, but Humpy first had to wait out a standing ovation from the packed room.
“Nobody ever bought a ticket to see me do anything at this track,” said Wheeler, who took over as head of operations at the track in 1976. “They bought a ticket to see you guys, and maybe to see a little bit of what we could stir up beforehand. I’ll be thankful for the rest of my life for what you’ve done.”
Wheeler joked that he enjoyed the Nationwide race so much Saturday night that he told Helton and Brian France, “Boys, let’s do this again tomorrow at 10 a.m.!”
Then he closed by adding: “You guys put on the show. We sell the tickets. I’m thankful for you and I do care about you. I care about the drivers, I care about the crew chiefs, I care about the car owners. And I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to stay in the sport, just in a different role.
“I leave you with one thing that I stole a little bit from the Irish blessing: I hope the green flag waves slowly over you today—and until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of his hand.”
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7 Comments
ClassicFan
Jun 05 2008 15:47
Class act!!
Humpy is the class of the field in racin’. We will never know all that he has done for Racers, car owners and racing in general. He has touched many lives throughout the racing community as well as Belmont and Charlotte. A hearty THANK YOU, Mr. Wheeler, sir!
Humpy is the Larry Bird of Belmont….locals will never tell and outsider where he lives out of respect for his privacy. A favorite son who is bigger than life.
Joe, thanks for your great work, among which this piece on Humpy stands tall.
ddgdaddy
May 29 2008 10:38
love ya humpy
things to be thankfull for in racing 1 humpy finding dale,2 humpy promoting racing,3 humpy being involved period. i have my doubts about the way it took place only because i dont trust bruton smith but humpy was and is a great man and partly responsible for the growth of our sport and humpy will be missed . one of the great men in the sport and in my mind nascar is loseing a great asset because you cant replace a legend… on a side note mr menzer i feel i was a little harsh on your thoughts about the allstar race and would like to take the time to say i normally agree with you and your opinions but for some reason that struck a nerve so sorry for the harsh words but i still think kasey belonged in the race and it is for us the fans
josieloves24
May 26 2008 06:11
Thank you Humpy!
Thanks for the blog
29thebomb
May 25 2008 23:32
Thanks for sharing
this with us.
Nice blog.
THEGLOVERDOG
May 25 2008 20:08
"Humpy Style", it worked on me!
My first race at, then, Charlotte Motor Speedway, was on the back stretch. I think it was 84’. Darrell was in the Pepsi Challenger, Petty in the Pontiac. Petty won, but, during tech inspection, was found to have left side tires on the right side of the car. None the less, Humpy had so much going on the front stretch for pre-race, I told my dad, “I want to sit on the front stretch next year”. We sat on the front stretch for the next eight years until his death.
Thanks Humpy, you know how to sell tickets.
C Glover
Orangeburg
Raven73
May 25 2008 19:29
Thanks Joe
Another great insight! Awesome!
AMP88GUARD
May 25 2008 19:03
I hope
that whatever Humpy decides to do that he truly enjoys himself.