Thursday, August 22, 2019

Shedding light on the situation

I think the year was 1992, and Charlotte Motor Speedway was about to install lights for night racing.

I went over to CMS to talk to promoter Humpy Wheeler about the lights, but I wasn't on Humpy's schedule. So I rode along with him to a funeral and interviewed him along the way.

Humpy suddenly stopped the car and said, "Let me talk to this gentleman," and he got out. The gentleman turned out to be a state trooper, and apparently Humpy was speeding.

He came back after several minutes and told me everything was OK (the trooper had recognized him), and we went on.

When we stopped at a drive-through for a bite, I asked if the speedway was working on anything other than the lights. Humpy told me they were working on building a speedway in Texas.

I thought that was strange (and wondered if he was putting me on), but I mentioned that in my next notes column. It turns out they were working on Texas Motor Speedway.

At the time, I didn't know I'd just gotten a scoop.





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