Wheeler: Sport cannot forget the working man

CONCORD, N.C. -- Lowe's Motor Speedway president Humpy Wheeler leans easily against the welcome desk just inside the track's media facility; Caribbean blue button-down shirt, tan sport coat, blizzard-white teeth. Ever-jovial, he is holding court, analyzing NASCAR with unmatched uniqueness and gusto.

At the moment the topic is NASCAR diversity, a program with which he is admittedly impressed. Not unlike many folks, Wheeler believes the program's initial impact lies on pit road. Minority crewmen will change the sport before minority drivers will.

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Not until blacks and Hispanic children begin racing at 6 years old -- not 16 -- will minority drivers have true groundbreaking impact a la Tiger Woods in golf.

And personalities are vital, Wheeler says. They must transcend, resonate. And they needn't be nice, either. People buy tickets to watch disliked drivers fail, he says.

Then, suddenly, the topic shifts, as if the driver love/hate comment jogs the memory.

Dale Earnhardt.

"Losing Earnhardt was a huge, massive hit for us because we haven't replaced the working man's driver," Wheeler says with palpable sincerity. "There's not a working man's driver out there in Cup racing."

Anyone close?

"No one that I can see."

"People knew [Earnhardt] could run a bulldozer," Wheeler continues. "They knew he could handle cattle. They knew he'd get his boots dirty. And they knew he could work on a racecar. When we lost him we lost shrimp boat captains and backhoe operators and dock workers -- guys that made us what we are today.

Humpy Wheeler

"It's the working man we're talking about here," says Wheeler. "He might be a farmer in Iowa or whatever, they loved Earnhardt."

Wheeler goes on to voice concern that NASCAR has grown a bit frilly, and is in danger of forgetting its roots. We can't forget the folks that got us here, he says.

"Anybody that forgets that bottom half's going to die. The track won't be here. The sport won't be here," says Wheeler. "We've got to work on that bottom half. We've done all the work we need to do on the top-half right now. We've gotten fancy enough."

Taking care of the common man, Wheeler says, means lowering ticket prices where feasible, and working with area hotels to ensure there's no price-gouging for rooms. (Currently, an $85-a-night room runs $250. Ridiculous.) Traffic flow. Better restroom facilities.

"There's a way to do that. It's not easy, and it's a lot work, but we need to work on all those things for the fan," says Wheeler. "We can't forget that bottom half, because those are the people that got us here."

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.