CONCORD, N.C. -- It is a hot summer night at Lowe's Motor Speedway on the outskirts of Charlotte. It is a Tuesday, a day of the week when conventional logic dictates the massive 1.5-mile track should be sleeping.

Instead, it is a beehive of activity.

There are miniaturized race cars scattered seemingly everywhere across the infield garage areas that on a normal NASCAR race weekend would be reserved for the hotshots from the Sprint Cup and Nationwide series. There are so many, in fact, that their transporters spill over into other areas of the infield as they prepare to go racing themselves in what LMS has long billed as the Summer Shootout Series.

It is a series that has helped produce many Cup drivers who are now well-known in all racing circles -- Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kurt and Kyle Busch, Reed Sorenson and David Ragan, to name just a few.

For 16 years they and others just like them have been coming here to race in Bandolero and Legends cars and chase dreams. Some are more realistic than others about their slim chances of one day driving Cup cars themselves. Some don't even come here in the hopes of chasing that large dream, but more so only to feed the habit-forming addiction that can be racing itself on whatever level their budgets can afford, while spending quality time with their families.

"To race here on Tuesday night, obviously there's really no reason in the world it should work," says Seamus Curley, director of the series. "But for 16 years, it's worked and become a tradition."

The Bandolero car, which resembles a mini-Porsche racer, is run in two divisions -- the Bandits, ages 8 to 11; and the Young Guns/Outlaws, ages 12 to 17. The youngest competitors run with a restrictor plate on their cars, limiting them to a top speed of 50 mph. But the older competitors can get the Bandolero up to a top speed of 63 mph.

The Legends cars are run by older drivers as well as the young up-and-comers. The divisions which comprise them include the Young Lions, ages 12 to 16; the Semi-Pro, which is for 17-year-olds and up; the Pro, which includes some of the nation's best Legends drivers; and the Masters, which is for those 40 and older. The Legends cars can reach 80 mph on the small track laid out inside the LMS superspeedway, and up to 110 mph on the superspeedways themselves.

There are great stories developing at different speeds all over the place.

Ken Brown works on the Bandolero his son Andy drives.

HOW IT STARTED

The Summer Shootout Series was born in 1992, after former LMS track president and general manager Humpy Wheeler decided the world needed an affordable, entry-level race car for young drivers who wanted to gain experience in the sport.

Thus, the Legends car was born. Naturally, as is his nature, Wheeler immediately thought beyond the obvious.

"It was the first time anybody had successfully gone into an assembly line with race cars," Wheeler says. "No one has done it since, I don't think. I knew something was missing, though, and that was a way to highlight them nationally.

"So we thought of the idea of a national TV series. That was back when the short tracks were really raising Cain about the superspeedways running at night. And since we also started the night-racing deal on the big tracks, I said, 'Well, we need to do it on a night when it won't affect the short tracks.' So we picked Tuesday night."

1on1: Humpy

He's no longer the most visible face at Lowe's Motor Speedway, where he reigned as president for more than 30 years, but make no mistake: Humpy Wheeler remains busy these days, as well as highly visible in the motorsports industry.

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Partly because of the economy and possibly also because Wheeler left LMS last May, this year the series is not on either live or taped television for the first time since its inception. Curley said he hopes that changes next year.

But in truth, televising the Shootout in its early days was key to fueling its popularity and growth.

"That's why we did it," Wheeler says. "It really wasn't to make money on weekly racing; it was to expose Legends cars to the nation. And it not only did, but it enabled us to sell over 4,000 of those cars not only in the United States, but also in Europe -- because some of the telecasts did get to Europe and also to Australia. So it was very, very beneficial to us.

"One of the unique things about it is that when it did rain on a Tuesday night, we lost the telecast. So since we ran on radial tires, I said simply, 'Let's run it rain or shine.' A lot of the drivers didn't think too much about that, but I thought let's give it a try. We did, and it worked out fine. To my knowledge, it's the only weekly series in the world that runs rain or shine.

"It gets pretty interesting in the rain, because it's kind of like running on a real slick dirt track. But the guys adjust to it. We don't let the little kids race in the rain -- but everybody else does."

Wheeler initially sold the Legends cars for $8,000. Some modifications were made to it a few years later and the price went up to $13,000 for a brand-new one, but that has remained the price now for seven years running.

"It's very inexpensive to race," Wheeler says. "You can run almost a whole season on a set of tires. You can run a whole season on an engine. A rebuild is only $2,500."

That, of course, is by design. It allows average folks to get into racing in a way that is affordable and high class all at once.

"The interesting part about it is that sometimes the guys who spend the least amount of money win the most amount of races -- because the cars are all even," Wheeler says. "And no matter how much you spend on the car, you can't add any horsepower to it. It's not going to impact the handling of it.

"So you can have a better transporter and the car may look prettier and all that stuff, but I put a lot of things into the design of that car to make sure they're equal and it's a good learning tool for young race car drivers."

Again, it's all by design -- and in the design that Wheeler and Fred Stratton, his friend who is chairman of Briggs & Stratton, came up with years ago. They were assisted by the motorsports mechanical engineering staff at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

"It's got a motorcycle engine in it with a lot of torque in it," Wheeler says. "So when you get back in the throttle, that rear end wants to break loose. So you learn how to drive a loose race car. We put hard tires on the car to make it more difficult to drive and not give it as much traction -- and you can't outspend someone on tires, because everyone's got to run the same tires. You run those tires whether you run on asphalt, dirt, road courses. They're all the same. Same tire, same compound.

"It's worked out real well. A lot of people said when we first started that it wouldn't work. A lot of people also asked how did you come up with the size [of the car]. I came up with the size real scientifically. I said, 'Well, it's gotta fit in the back of a long-bed pickup truck.' "

“

I did the whole race driving one-armed. And then a kid got under me ... the car, it just got real loose and slid up into the wall. It was fun. It was real fun -- right up until that happened.

”

ANDY BROWN

DANGER LOOMS

The long-bed pickup truck that sits next to a plain white transporter bears a license plate that reads Ontario, Canada. It belongs to Ken Brown Sr., the father of Ken Brown and the grandfather of Kenny and Andy Brown. He drives to North Carolina every summer to watch his grandsons compete in the Summer Shootout Series.

Sitting just behind the transporter is the Bandolero car young Andy soon will race in a feature event, for which he will sit on the pole. But at the moment, 15-year-old Andy Brown sits in the transporter, a large ice pack on his aching left shoulder.

"A couple weeks ago, I sprained my shoulder when the throttle stuck open on my car," Andy says. "I actually hit the wall going full throttle. I slid out of my seat a little bit and I sprained my shoulder and possibly tore some of the tendons in my arm.

"So I've been in a sling for about two weeks now. I've been racing and keeping ice packs on the shoulder -- and taking a lot of ibuprofen."

Yet the injury has not stopped him from racing in the Summer Shootout Series.

Andy drives a Bandolero in the Young Guns/Outlaws division. The Bandolero is another car that was developed by Wheeler eight years ago.

"When it started it was $6,995 and that's the price of it today," Wheeler says proudly. "About 600 of those have been sold."

Talk to Andy for a few minutes and it's obvious he possesses the personality -- and the toughness -- to go a long way in racing if he so chooses, and if he can stay in good equipment. It should help that his father once served as director of engineering at Dale Earnhardt Inc., and now works for Toyota Racing Development.

This is a family affair. Andy's older brother Kenny also has raced in the Summer Shootout Series and their friendly, personable mother, Sue, works the grill while father Ken works on the car before the feature race.

"It was fast before. You're on the pole. I don't know why they have to tinker with it," says Sue, smiling.

"You can always get it to go a little faster," Andy says.

Then Andy launches into a play-by-play of how he suffered his injury.

"It was exactly two weeks ago when that happened. During a feature race, too. So that was a bad deal," he says. "What happened was I went into the corner and kind of knew there was a problem. The revs stayed up at full throttle. I almost lost it going into the corner. So the way I drove the rest of the race, I kept one hand on the steering wheel and with the other arm I kept my finger on the [ignition] switch. I would turn it off in the corner, and then turn it on again to re-fire the engine. I didn't have to use the gas at all; I just had to use the brakes. Because every time I re-fired the engine, it was already at full throttle.

"I did the whole race driving one-armed. I did about 12 laps of that. And then a kid got under me when we racing for I think 10th or 11th. And when I re-fired the car, it just got real loose and slid up into the wall. It was fun. It was real fun -- right up until that happened."

It also was a stark reminder that racing, even on this level, can be a dangerous deal.

Shawn DeLuca never watched racing until his daughter, Teigan "Stone Cold" DeLuca, developed a sudden interest.

FOR THE GIRLS, TOO

On the other side of the garage, Teigan DeLuca is discussing what happened in her preliminary Bandits heat with her father, Shawn. She leans against her car, brightly decorated with the No. 70 and her name -- as well as her "Stone Cold" nickname.

Teigan "Stone Cold" DeLuca is 9 years old. With bright blue eyes and blond hair, a chauvinist would say she looks more like she should be wearing a dress rather than the tiny firesuit she dons instead.

She is soft-spoken and unfailingly polite. She has been racing in a Bandolero for just six months, but spent two-and-a-half years racing in quarter-midgets prior to that and still races those, as well.

"I like being around family and just having fun racing against people I know," Teigan says. "We have a great time without any issues or anything like that."

Shawn DeLuca remembers when Teigan, then not quite 7 years old, asked to try her small hands at racing.

"I asked if her and her younger sister if they wanted to get into some kind of sports -- you know, gymnastics or T-ball or whatever. And she wanted to race cars. I don't know why," says Shawn, grinning widely.

"I didn't have a single tool or watch racing or anything. I don't know what drew her into it. It was the funniest thing."

“

We have not had one serious injury in a Bandolero -- and I'm probably more proud of that than anything. ... Nothing that you wouldn't get on a Pop Warner football field.

”

HUMPY WHEELER

Teigan shrugs at the memory. "I just wanted to try it, having seen it," she says.

It was with young boys and girls such as Teigan in mind that Wheeler was so meticulous in helping design the Legends and Bandolero cars in the first place. He wanted to make sure he kept them safe.

Sure, there have been bang-ups and brushes with the wall that have produced minor injuries such as the one Andy Brown currently deals with -- but overall, the track record of the small cars is impressive indeed from the safety standpoint.

"We have not had one serious injury in a Bandolero -- and I'm probably more proud of that than anything," Wheeler says. "We've had one broken leg and a few bumps and broken arms, concussions. Nothing that you wouldn't get on a Pop Warner football field."

Wheeler says that the greatest endorsement of the safety of the smaller cars has been the high number of Cup drivers who put their own kids in them.

"They never hesitated to put their kids in a Bandolero -- because they knew it was a good, safe race car," he says. "Basically it's an oversized go-kart with springs on it and a full roll cage. And then we put a body on it so the person is totally protected.

"We've T-boned 'em, rolled 'em off banks, we've done some pretty wild things to 'em accident-wise -- and everything has always worked out fine."

That's reassuring to Shawn DeLuca and countless others like him. Meanwhile, he can't believe his world revolves so much around racing these days.

"I watch it now, too," Shawn says. "The reason I got into it is because there are a few NASCAR drivers who [have sons and daughters that] race at the quarter-midget track in Salisbury [N.C.] where we race, too. Jeff Burton's kid; Ernie Irvan's kid; Dave Blaney's son; Dave Gilliland's son, Todd. They all race there.

"We met Jeff Burton up there. I've never met a nicer guy in my life. So I started following him. That's what got me into it -- because I knew somebody who actually was in racing and wanted to see how he was doing. I started watching him from there. The more we got into this, the more I got into that."

Asked if someone told him even three years ago that he would be so heavily involved, he laughs heartily at the thought.

"I didn't know anything about motors, didn't know anything about cars," he says. "I didn't have a single tool set [for working on cars]. I build houses for a living. So I had no ratchet sets, no nothing. If somebody had told me that I would be racing cars like this, I would have told them they were crazy."

Walter Stillwell hopes the Summer Shootout Series can be a stepping stone for Reid Wilson, left, and son Jordan Stillwell.

SEARCHING FOR SPONSORS

While Andy Brown and Teigan DeLuca run out of modest family run operations, there are others in the Summer Shootout garage who already are thinking on a much grander scale.

One would be Walter Stillwell, who fields a Legends car in the Young Lions division for his son, Jordan, as well as a Bandolero in the Young Guns/Outlaws division for family friend Reid Wilson. That's only the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, when it comes to Stillwell's plans for his racing operation.

"We're trying to do a driver development program. We're waiting on some sponsorship," he says. "We're trying to do a couple more Legends and another Bando, and hopefully a late model."

It won't be easy. Or cheap.

“

We're 180 strong on Tuesday night. That's been our average this year. I don't care who you are; that's a strong car count.

”

SEAMUS CURLEY

The Summer Shootout Series might have been hatched mostly on the idea of providing an affordable entry-level racing outlet for young drivers, but that doesn't stop some folks from figuring they need to throw lots of dollars at it to beat the competition.

Then again, Stillwell has grand plans that go far beyond simply the Summer Shootout Series -- and he thought he had the sponsorship money lined up to fuel them.

"We had a million dollar sponsorship lined up for this year, and the lady's money got embezzled," he says, shaking his head. "We didn't even go looking for any additional sponsorship for this year because we thought we were covered. Then that fell apart. Usually we've been able to run and get new sponsorships, to where we could afford to have new tires and stuff every week, and be able to run up front. That kind of caught us off-guard when we found out about that."

Ask how much he's looking for, and his answer is a little stunning. And sobering.

"We could probably get by on $600,000," Walter Stillwell says. "Then we could run the Hooters Pro Cup cars. We could run some Bandos and late models -- two Bandos and two Legends and a limited amount of late-model races. We hope to be able to get something nailed down on that. We've already got proposals going out in the mail for next year."

His current drivers sound like experienced Cup guys when asked about their situation. They not only can drive, but they already seem to know how to sell themselves and the Stillwell Racing program to potential sponsors.

Jordan, a top-notch student in school, admits that his goal is to eventually make it to the big time in NASCAR. It could help that his father has aligned his operation with former Cup driver Andy Hillenburg, who also has a son and daughter who race and runs a driving school out of the old Rockingham Speedway, which Hillenburg now owns.

"I think I could make it. We just need help," Jordan Stillwell says. "We need a good bit of help to get us to where we're competing more for championships and wins -- and as you can see, we're not at that state right now. I'm just looking to go out there and have fun and just try to do my best, get some experience."

Jordan Stillwell, 14, has been racing since age 10 and has the blessing of Ken Ragan and Ken's son, current Cup driver David Ragan. That and the constant advice he receives from Hillenburg should help as he pursues his lofty goal.

"I do think a lot about that. I mean, Ken Ragan and David Ragan are really who got me into it," Stillwell says. "They got me a ride with Billy and Brian Silas. Brian runs an ARCA car for Andy Hillenburg. So we know Andy and them real well. In fact, his son and his daughter used to run my old Bandoleros. But it's been a real fun experience driving for them, and having Andy down here every week, helping me. He knows what he's talking about."

Wilson figures the Stillwells do, too. He says he's happy to be included in their operation.

"I picked up the Bandolero racing four of five years ago," said Wilson, who was then 8 and now is 13. "But there was a wreck. The first time I was out there, I flipped over -- and so we stopped racing for about a year. So officially I've been racing for about three years now.

"Once I picked up with them, we went from running in the very back, getting lapped at the Summer Shootout, to running mid-pack to last year when we were running in the top 10 almost every single week. It's just been a great time here at Stillwell Racing."

Are you listening, potential sponsors?

Legends cars are lined up and wait their turn.

THE FUTURE

For now, the Summer Shootout Series at Lowe's Motor Speedway seems as strong as ever. The number of participants is down slightly, but Curley says that is to be expected because of the sagging economy.

"It's an eclectic group for sure, from all walks of life," Curley says. "And it really is a breeding ground for the next level, whether that particular driver decides to go to late models or something else. It's incredible to see the diverse group that comes.

"We're 180 strong on Tuesday night. That's been our average this year. I don't care who you are; that's a strong car count. And it's made even more interesting by the diverse group that we get."

It makes Wheeler smile. Although he's no longer directly involved with helping run the series, he still has his own group of developmental drivers -- called Humpy's Heroes -- who participate in it. He keeps close tabs on them, watching in person often.

Plus, to Wheeler, the series always will remain like the child he helped raise from its very birth. "A lot of really good race car drivers have come out of that series," he says.

Some, like Jordan Stillwell, boldly state their goals of making the so-called big time. Others, like Andy Brown and Teigan DeLuca, seem perfectly happy living in the moment, surrounded by family and the unique smells and sounds and speeds of racing, even if on a smaller scale.

"A big thing for us to remember is Joey Logano did the Legends Cars. He did kind of the path that we're looking for," Andy Brown says. "He did the Legends cars and then the late models. He just moved up the ranks kind of the way we think we could to do it. So many kids have gotten their starts here, it just kind of shows us anything is possible for us. In the Bandolero series, it's about getting your name out there more than anything else -- making anything possible."

"I'd like it to happen for me. I have another career path in mind, and that's being a lawyer. But if it happens [as a driver], it definitely would be a great career option for me. If this racing deal doesn't work out, I might as well have a fallback -- and I could go into law."

Until then, there always is the Summer Shootout Series at LMS on Tuesday nights. Put simply, it's a great place for anyone to race.