Humpy Wheeler should have been a writer, and now he is

    I don't read many books about sports. When I read, I like to escape. So I almost always choose fiction, fiction or anything written by Pete Dexter.  

    Many people I know and respect have written books about sports, and I approach them warily. Because I like the author, I want to like his or her work. So I was nervous about reading Growing Up NASCAR: Racing's Most Outrageous Promoter Tells All.

    The author is Humpy Wheeler (with Peter Golenbock). And I respect Humpy as much as anybody I've written about.

So I put it off. I let the book sit.

    I'm a fool. Humpy has always been a master story-teller, and he wouldn't have written his story if it weren't good. And it is good. It is excellent. It's not simply the story of racing or the story of Humpy. It's the story of mill towns and small-town boys and fast cars and fistfights. It's the story of the piece of the South from which Humpy comes.

    I went to bed Tuesday reading Growing Up NASCAR and picked it up again Wednesday morning at 6 a.m.  The book is like  a race, a good race, a race from story to story, character to character, warm and insightful and true, a race I don't want to end.

    I'd recommend it even if I didn't know the author. And we all know Humpy, or feel as if we do, through his work as president and general manager and promoter extraordinaire at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

    Humpy will be at the Books A Million at Concord Mills Mall tonight from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Stories will be told and books will be signed and sold. 

Comments

[Kelley]

Sounds like a good read. My experience with Mr. Wheeler was when I was in college working at a bicycle shop. He came by with a bicycle wheel and asked if we could fix the flat on it, paid for it and told us a woman would pick it up. Well, the woman was a stranger he helped on the side of the road. He gave her his wheel from the bike in his truck and told her where she could find her wheel. Funny part is that he left his bicycle wheel worth several hundred dollars to a complete stranger. Then paid to have hers fixed. What a nice guy.

[Dee]

Awesome story Kelley. I too have met Humpy and he's as nice, funny and charming as they come.

[Yo DaddyO]

Where did "Humpy" get that name? Nevermind.

So where would ole Humpy boy be had it not been for his daddy rabbit wealthiest individual in the Carolinas with his great benefactor Bruton Smith a Founding Father who made him from scratch and owns more racetracks than anyone in the world?

Was Bruton Smiths name even mentioned at the NASCAR opening? Incredible. Why not? Had Smith not opened his big track 50 yrs ago this city would still be a nothing but a small backwater speck. While they honor a few peasants like Petty or Earnhardt ie they ignore the number one reason for it all other than France? Come on now. Whats wrong with this picture?

If you want to know who made this city who it is and ultimately brought all pro sports etc fame and prosperity its Bruton Smith not the other bandwagon uptownie gang, and he cant even get a mention at the NASCAR Hall of Fame he brought here? Damn...

Un frickin real ...

[Big Yellow Streak in NASCAR]

Speaking of Smith. Is he a man or a mouse? Does he wear womens panties? He showed his true colors recently dropping the lawsuit over the Dragstrip mishandling and other ineptness in an adjacent small town who was cheating him out of 100 million or so according to reports.
We heard the elite officials over there were all laughing and mocking him saying he got cold feet and was scared chicken yellow to go thru with it. Cowardly Lion Wiz of Oz deja vu?
Mercy !!!

[stump jumper]

that you humpy?

[Henrietta]

Heck yeah bay-bee keep them comnig!

[Butch]

I've been lkooing for a post like this for an age

[Daisy]

Super ifnroamtive writing; keep it up.