August 21, 2025 • 12 mins
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
As we talked about earlier in the show, and you've
very likely heard by now, NASCAR and the world of
motorsports lost not just a legend, but a giant earlier today.
Humpy Wheeler born in Belmont, North Carolina, grew up in
Gaston County, officially known as h A. Wheeler Howard Augustine Wheeler,
but the NASCAR community knew him as Humpy Wheeler, and
(00:21):
he left a massive, massive impact on this sport. Gone
at the age of eighty six, and we enlist the
help of a guy who saw a lot of it.
Most of it knows a ton about Humpy Wheeler, and
of course it's one of the iconic voices of NASCAR.
Longtime president anchor Performance Racing Network, now enjoying retirement, our
buddy Doug Rice back with us here on a Thursday afternoon. Doug,
(00:42):
we appreciate you brother, how you been.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Thanks at Coliban doing well, and it's an honor to
come on and talk about Humpy. I had the true
pleasure and blessing of working directly for him for two decades,
so that's know him pretty well. I wasn't like chums within,
but I was around him enough to have a real
appreciation for what he brought to the game.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
All right, So you're you're standing across from a twenty
one year old intern, let's say, a performance racing network,
and they're asking you about Humpy Wheeler. Who was he?
What did he mean to the sport? What did he do?
How do you explain it to him?
Speaker 2 (01:17):
The word that jumps out for me is Humpy was
a visionary. And he wasn't just a visionary. We all
have visions of what things could be, but Humpy had
the ability to recognize those visions and bring him to life.
And that's the that's the groundwork of what made him great.
He was personable, whether it was with the blue collar
(01:41):
race fan or president of the United States. He could
go either way, and he could mix and mingle with
all types. But I think that that visionary stance that
he had, and that's easy to do, but he did
the hard part. He went out and made those visions
come to life.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
What's the craziest thing, all right, craziest idea that help
you ever had?
Speaker 2 (02:03):
The craziest idea he ever had was one that didn't
get done. It was we were going through and we
would have these big meetings and I was in these
meetings because I was directing advertising for several years at
the Speedway, and I think Eddie Gosstige was also in
this meeting, the late Eddie Gossage was in there, and
(02:24):
we're tossing out ideas for the pre race show, and
it might have been Eddie that said it, and he
said shark versus man one must die. And you can
see Humphy was conflicted because he loved the brilliance of
(02:45):
the idea. Obviously that was never going to come to pass.
But that's the craziest thing I ever heard brought up
in a meeting. But I think Humpy had an appreciation
for what that represented an absurd thought.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Well, yeah, and I was talking earlier Doug about all
the things that he's known for, right the taxi race
on the quarter mile track, the the re enactment of
the US invasion of Granada, the the Robosaurus, the live
elephants on the track, all that stuff, And I do
want to hear more about that. But you know, I
think because of those things, he took on this almost
(03:17):
caricature type of of of image for a lot of people.
But you know, somebody asked me on the on the
text line a minute ago. Where did the nickname Humpy
come from? And I believe it was a childhood spinal
condition that caused a slight hump in his back caused
by scoliosis. And I bring that up because this man
went on to play football at the University of South Carolina.
He was a pretty good boxer as well. Like he
(03:38):
wasn't just a visionary. This was a tough headstrong man too.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Oh, and he could be he could be a lot.
There were there were these great stories about how Humpy
had foam phones on his desk because he had broken
so many phones by throwing him across the room. When
he'd get mad, he'd take the rage out on the phone. Well,
this is back when everybody had big desk phone and
his secretaries would literally have extra phones for when they
(04:04):
heard one hit the wall, they'd go in and replace it.
And finally they said, we're tired of doing this. Here's
a phone block. Throw it when you get angry. And
you mentioned that he went to South Carolina. He came
out from some meeting. His office really wasn't all that
far away where mine was on the seventh floor. And
this is many years ago, and something had ticked him off,
and he came out and he slammed the wall near
(04:26):
my office. It wasn't directed at me yet, it was
just happened to be the wall. And I went out
and looked where he hit it, and you could see
the impression of his gamecock flastering. I had an etching
for a long time that I made. But he was fiery.
He was at scotch Irish fiery, get red hot guy.
(04:49):
But he was also very very giving, And I think
that's the one thing that's told people today. This guy
helped more people than you can ever imagine, not just
not just the Alan Kuwikis and the Ricky Rudds of
the world, but race fans and people he didn't know.
He had an extremely big heart, and he gave. He
gave money, he gave materials, counseling. He was always at
(05:13):
the ready to help people.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
No doubt about it. Doug Rice's iconic voice of NASCAR,
former president anchor Performance Racing Network, hanging out with us
talking about the life and legacy of Humpy Wheeler, one
of the great promoters in the history of not just motorsports,
but all sports. Doug, how did the drivers feel about him?
I mean, he was an executive, he was a marketer.
But how did the drivers themselves feel about Humpy Wheeler. Oh?
Speaker 2 (05:36):
I think they loved him and respected him. Sometimes they
wondered and scratched their heads about some of the things
that Humpy wanted him to do. I know he had
Larry mcgrennoll's acting out of pit stop on a Barnam
and Bailey elephant one time, and Larry was saying, do
I really want to do this? But they really appreciated,
(05:56):
especially more over time, what Humpy was bringing to the sport,
that he was bringing new eyeballs and a fresh appearance.
Because up until Humpy came along, Kyle going into a
race man, you bought your ticket, you went in, you
got your popcorn and your beer, you sat down and
you watched the race, and that was it. And Humpy realized,
if we want to get more people, we got to
(06:18):
give them something else. And that's where these elaborate pre
race shows and the stunts and everything grew from. But
he realized that pretty early on in his career that
to stand out you had to do something and make
people notice you.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
And he did a lot of it. And I'd throw
out there too, I mean back in the nineteen seventies
there was I think he had wanted to broaden the demographics,
convinced Janet Guthrie to perform, wanted to draw more women
into the world of Nascar, as I think the number
back then was only fifteen percent of the audience. So
I mean he was, I mean so forward thinking in
that way. And you know, I'm thinking about Bill Vetch
(06:53):
or Bill Veeck and who else Vince McMahon, Bill Veck,
that is Don King. And then I think about Jesse
with the Savannah Bananas. And I was thinking earlier today
as I was reflecting on Humpy's life, like I would
have loved to have asked Humpy Doug what he thought
of the Savannah Bananas. I have to believe, based on
what we know about Humpy, that he probably thought that
(07:14):
was just fantastic.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
I can promise you that in the different syts of circumstances,
if Humpy was still at the Speedway, the Savannah Bananas
would have already played nearby. Now, I just I just
feel like that's an absolute mortal lock that they would
have had a baseball game at Charlotto the Speedway, and
he cared he cared about that fan experience. He wanted
(07:37):
those people to leave that place just waiting to get
back the next time. And I really think that was
key he was. He was just so unique and we
don't have a lot of characters like that anymore, Kyle, everybody,
everything is so business like and so formal, and Humpy
didn't operate that way. Humpy would have. He had a
(07:58):
lot of visitors come through. Everybody from governor's to movie
stars to the super wealthy well come back to see
Humpy because he had that kind of rep and his
icebreaker for them was he had bottles of a legend
Junior Johnson Moonshine. I don't know that any of it
was ever drank, but he would bring that out and
(08:20):
sort of show it around and open it up and
let people smell it, and then he would tell some
stories and the next thing you know, these people were
all in Humpy Wheeler for world and I, like I said,
I don't know if any of it ever got drank.
I got one of the bottles from him before he left.
I still have it in my man case. But that
was just part of his character that he built to
(08:42):
break the ice with people, and it always worked.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Doug Rice with us on the hotline talking about Humpy Wheeler.
But also I want to know, Doug, you're out of
the game now. I can imagine that I can probably
not a tough transition for you. You're a guy who likes
a lot of things, but you're out of the game
for the first time. You're watching races on the weekend.
You're in a different routine. What's it like and what
have you thought of the NASCAR season so far?
Speaker 2 (09:04):
I thought I would be a nervous wreck the first
weekends that came around that we're going to be PRN
races that I was on the road, But I found
out I was really quite comfortable being at home watching
and going like, Okay, this did not require me to
fly five hours to Sonoma, California. This is not bad.
So that part of the transition has been really good.
(09:28):
This season has been a little odd in the sense
that I don't have a grip on who's the dominant player.
I don't think there's one driver right now that's all
that much better than anybody else, unless you rule Sane
Van Gisbergen on the road course. That's as close to
an absolute lock as we're going to get but for
(09:48):
the rest of the year, I don't feel like there
is a team that has distinguished themselves out and above
anybody else, so they get ready for the championship. Here
after Daytona, I think it's pretty wide open, and I
think we've got a chance to maybe have a real
Cinderella story in the championship this year because nobody steps up.
In my mind, I.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Hear you two quick things. I'll let you go any
thoughts on As a Falcons fan the NFC South, I'm
giving the Buccaneers the benefit of the doubt. They've earned
that until somebody knocks them off. But it seems most
of the rest of the NFL media world thinks that
Carolina and Atlanta should be vying for that second spot
in the division. What do you think about the Falcons?
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Well, you know, the Falcons managed to beat the Bucks
twice last year still lost the division. That's what I
think about. You know, here's how this will play out, Kyle.
They will be just good enough to get my hopes
up and I'll get excited for about two weeks and
then they'll nose dive and crash and it'll all go
crap again. So that's that's really not a realistic assumption.
(10:51):
I think the Falcons are going to be good, but
good enough to win the NFC South. Yeah, they might be,
but I don't even know if that's a lot to
brag about right now.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
All right, Well, across the street from me this time
in eight days, we're going to watch app State and
Charlotte go at it to kick off their respective college
football seasons. You're a proud app State man, you're one
of dal Loggins. Where's your expectation level there?
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Well, Penny and I are going to be there. My
expectation is that they'll win this opening game. I think
they're a tough conference in the Sunbelt, but they've got
a favorable draw this year with the teams they play
and the folks they don't play. I'm not going to
put the expectations way out there. Go get seven wins
and get us back in a bowl game. Apple, Ax
(11:38):
and State. At the very least, the least place I
can put them is that we need to be bowl eligible.
We do not need to be setting on the sideline
when everybody else is playing extra football.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
All right, well, Doug, we'll find out here in about
eight days. Thank you for the time, my friend. Always
great to hear your voice, and you and I will
certainly be catching up sooner. Man, have a great.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Evening all right, Kyle, Thanks for having me on to
talk about Humpty. I enjoyed that
As we talked about earlier in the show, and you've
very likely heard by now, NASCAR and the world of
motorsports lost not just a legend, but a giant earlier today.
Humpy Wheeler born in Belmont, North Carolina, grew up in
Gaston County, officially known as h A. Wheeler Howard Augustine Wheeler,
but the NASCAR community knew him as Humpy Wheeler, and
(00:21):
he left a massive, massive impact on this sport. Gone
at the age of eighty six, and we enlist the
help of a guy who saw a lot of it.
Most of it knows a ton about Humpy Wheeler, and
of course it's one of the iconic voices of NASCAR.
Longtime president anchor Performance Racing Network, now enjoying retirement, our
buddy Doug Rice back with us here on a Thursday afternoon. Doug,
(00:42):
we appreciate you brother, how you been.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Thanks at Coliban doing well, and it's an honor to
come on and talk about Humpy. I had the true
pleasure and blessing of working directly for him for two decades,
so that's know him pretty well. I wasn't like chums within,
but I was around him enough to have a real
appreciation for what he brought to the game.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
All right, So you're you're standing across from a twenty
one year old intern, let's say, a performance racing network,
and they're asking you about Humpy Wheeler. Who was he?
What did he mean to the sport? What did he do?
How do you explain it to him?
Speaker 2 (01:17):
The word that jumps out for me is Humpy was
a visionary. And he wasn't just a visionary. We all
have visions of what things could be, but Humpy had
the ability to recognize those visions and bring him to life.
And that's the that's the groundwork of what made him great.
He was personable, whether it was with the blue collar
(01:41):
race fan or president of the United States. He could
go either way, and he could mix and mingle with
all types. But I think that that visionary stance that
he had, and that's easy to do, but he did
the hard part. He went out and made those visions
come to life.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
What's the craziest thing, all right, craziest idea that help
you ever had?
Speaker 2 (02:03):
The craziest idea he ever had was one that didn't
get done. It was we were going through and we
would have these big meetings and I was in these
meetings because I was directing advertising for several years at
the Speedway, and I think Eddie Gosstige was also in
this meeting, the late Eddie Gossage was in there, and
(02:24):
we're tossing out ideas for the pre race show, and
it might have been Eddie that said it, and he
said shark versus man one must die. And you can
see Humphy was conflicted because he loved the brilliance of
(02:45):
the idea. Obviously that was never going to come to pass.
But that's the craziest thing I ever heard brought up
in a meeting. But I think Humpy had an appreciation
for what that represented an absurd thought.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Well, yeah, and I was talking earlier Doug about all
the things that he's known for, right the taxi race
on the quarter mile track, the the re enactment of
the US invasion of Granada, the the Robosaurus, the live
elephants on the track, all that stuff, And I do
want to hear more about that. But you know, I
think because of those things, he took on this almost
(03:17):
caricature type of of of image for a lot of people.
But you know, somebody asked me on the on the
text line a minute ago. Where did the nickname Humpy
come from? And I believe it was a childhood spinal
condition that caused a slight hump in his back caused
by scoliosis. And I bring that up because this man
went on to play football at the University of South Carolina.
He was a pretty good boxer as well. Like he
(03:38):
wasn't just a visionary. This was a tough headstrong man too.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Oh, and he could be he could be a lot.
There were there were these great stories about how Humpy
had foam phones on his desk because he had broken
so many phones by throwing him across the room. When
he'd get mad, he'd take the rage out on the phone. Well,
this is back when everybody had big desk phone and
his secretaries would literally have extra phones for when they
(04:04):
heard one hit the wall, they'd go in and replace it.
And finally they said, we're tired of doing this. Here's
a phone block. Throw it when you get angry. And
you mentioned that he went to South Carolina. He came
out from some meeting. His office really wasn't all that
far away where mine was on the seventh floor. And
this is many years ago, and something had ticked him off,
and he came out and he slammed the wall near
(04:26):
my office. It wasn't directed at me yet, it was
just happened to be the wall. And I went out
and looked where he hit it, and you could see
the impression of his gamecock flastering. I had an etching
for a long time that I made. But he was fiery.
He was at scotch Irish fiery, get red hot guy.
(04:49):
But he was also very very giving, And I think
that's the one thing that's told people today. This guy
helped more people than you can ever imagine, not just
not just the Alan Kuwikis and the Ricky Rudds of
the world, but race fans and people he didn't know.
He had an extremely big heart, and he gave. He
gave money, he gave materials, counseling. He was always at
(05:13):
the ready to help people.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
No doubt about it. Doug Rice's iconic voice of NASCAR,
former president anchor Performance Racing Network, hanging out with us
talking about the life and legacy of Humpy Wheeler, one
of the great promoters in the history of not just motorsports,
but all sports. Doug, how did the drivers feel about him?
I mean, he was an executive, he was a marketer.
But how did the drivers themselves feel about Humpy Wheeler. Oh?
Speaker 2 (05:36):
I think they loved him and respected him. Sometimes they
wondered and scratched their heads about some of the things
that Humpy wanted him to do. I know he had
Larry mcgrennoll's acting out of pit stop on a Barnam
and Bailey elephant one time, and Larry was saying, do
I really want to do this? But they really appreciated,
(05:56):
especially more over time, what Humpy was bringing to the sport,
that he was bringing new eyeballs and a fresh appearance.
Because up until Humpy came along, Kyle going into a
race man, you bought your ticket, you went in, you
got your popcorn and your beer, you sat down and
you watched the race, and that was it. And Humpy realized,
if we want to get more people, we got to
(06:18):
give them something else. And that's where these elaborate pre
race shows and the stunts and everything grew from. But
he realized that pretty early on in his career that
to stand out you had to do something and make
people notice you.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
And he did a lot of it. And I'd throw
out there too, I mean back in the nineteen seventies
there was I think he had wanted to broaden the demographics,
convinced Janet Guthrie to perform, wanted to draw more women
into the world of Nascar, as I think the number
back then was only fifteen percent of the audience. So
I mean he was, I mean so forward thinking in
that way. And you know, I'm thinking about Bill Vetch
(06:53):
or Bill Veeck and who else Vince McMahon, Bill Veck,
that is Don King. And then I think about Jesse
with the Savannah Bananas. And I was thinking earlier today
as I was reflecting on Humpy's life, like I would
have loved to have asked Humpy Doug what he thought
of the Savannah Bananas. I have to believe, based on
what we know about Humpy, that he probably thought that
(07:14):
was just fantastic.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
I can promise you that in the different syts of circumstances,
if Humpy was still at the Speedway, the Savannah Bananas
would have already played nearby. Now, I just I just
feel like that's an absolute mortal lock that they would
have had a baseball game at Charlotto the Speedway, and
he cared he cared about that fan experience. He wanted
(07:37):
those people to leave that place just waiting to get
back the next time. And I really think that was
key he was. He was just so unique and we
don't have a lot of characters like that anymore, Kyle, everybody,
everything is so business like and so formal, and Humpy
didn't operate that way. Humpy would have. He had a
(07:58):
lot of visitors come through. Everybody from governor's to movie
stars to the super wealthy well come back to see
Humpy because he had that kind of rep and his
icebreaker for them was he had bottles of a legend
Junior Johnson Moonshine. I don't know that any of it
was ever drank, but he would bring that out and
(08:20):
sort of show it around and open it up and
let people smell it, and then he would tell some
stories and the next thing you know, these people were
all in Humpy Wheeler for world and I, like I said,
I don't know if any of it ever got drank.
I got one of the bottles from him before he left.
I still have it in my man case. But that
was just part of his character that he built to
(08:42):
break the ice with people, and it always worked.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Doug Rice with us on the hotline talking about Humpy Wheeler.
But also I want to know, Doug, you're out of
the game now. I can imagine that I can probably
not a tough transition for you. You're a guy who likes
a lot of things, but you're out of the game
for the first time. You're watching races on the weekend.
You're in a different routine. What's it like and what
have you thought of the NASCAR season so far?
Speaker 2 (09:04):
I thought I would be a nervous wreck the first
weekends that came around that we're going to be PRN
races that I was on the road, But I found
out I was really quite comfortable being at home watching
and going like, Okay, this did not require me to
fly five hours to Sonoma, California. This is not bad.
So that part of the transition has been really good.
(09:28):
This season has been a little odd in the sense
that I don't have a grip on who's the dominant player.
I don't think there's one driver right now that's all
that much better than anybody else, unless you rule Sane
Van Gisbergen on the road course. That's as close to
an absolute lock as we're going to get but for
(09:48):
the rest of the year, I don't feel like there
is a team that has distinguished themselves out and above
anybody else, so they get ready for the championship. Here
after Daytona, I think it's pretty wide open, and I
think we've got a chance to maybe have a real
Cinderella story in the championship this year because nobody steps up.
In my mind, I.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Hear you two quick things. I'll let you go any
thoughts on As a Falcons fan the NFC South, I'm
giving the Buccaneers the benefit of the doubt. They've earned
that until somebody knocks them off. But it seems most
of the rest of the NFL media world thinks that
Carolina and Atlanta should be vying for that second spot
in the division. What do you think about the Falcons?
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Well, you know, the Falcons managed to beat the Bucks
twice last year still lost the division. That's what I
think about. You know, here's how this will play out, Kyle.
They will be just good enough to get my hopes
up and I'll get excited for about two weeks and
then they'll nose dive and crash and it'll all go
crap again. So that's that's really not a realistic assumption.
(10:51):
I think the Falcons are going to be good, but
good enough to win the NFC South. Yeah, they might be,
but I don't even know if that's a lot to
brag about right now.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
All right, Well, across the street from me this time
in eight days, we're going to watch app State and
Charlotte go at it to kick off their respective college
football seasons. You're a proud app State man, you're one
of dal Loggins. Where's your expectation level there?
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Well, Penny and I are going to be there. My
expectation is that they'll win this opening game. I think
they're a tough conference in the Sunbelt, but they've got
a favorable draw this year with the teams they play
and the folks they don't play. I'm not going to
put the expectations way out there. Go get seven wins
and get us back in a bowl game. Apple, Ax
(11:38):
and State. At the very least, the least place I
can put them is that we need to be bowl eligible.
We do not need to be setting on the sideline
when everybody else is playing extra football.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
All right, well, Doug, we'll find out here in about
eight days. Thank you for the time, my friend. Always
great to hear your voice, and you and I will
certainly be catching up sooner. Man, have a great.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Evening all right, Kyle, Thanks for having me on to
talk about Humpty. I enjoyed that
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