This weekend’s Coca-Cola 600 will be Wheeler’s last race for Lowe’s Motor Speedway, two people familiar with the decision told the AP. They requested anonymity because an official announcement, which could come as early as Wednesday, has not yet been made.
It was not immediately clear who will succeed Wheeler, who has managed the track for the past 33 years and was named president in 1980. Candidates include track owner Bruton Smith’s son, Marcus, the executive vice president of sales and marketing for Speedway Motorsports Inc., and Lauri Wilks, executive vice president of management and administration for LMS.
Hired in 1975 by Bruton Smith, Wheeler coupled his flair for the dramatic and an extensive motorsports background in outrageous publicity stunts promoting Lowe’s Motor Speedway, turning it into a premier sports facility
Born Howard Augustine Wheeler Jr. in 1938 in nearby Belmont, Wheeler attended a motorcycle race in Daytona as a young child and was so entranced by the excitement, he said he would sit along the highway to watch cars pass. As a 10-year-old, he was hitchhiking his way to the old Charlotte Speedway, where he landed himself a job selling soda just to have an excuse to be at the track.
Under Wheeler’s management, the speedway expanded its seating capacity to 167,000 and became the first modern facility to install lights for night racing.
The speedway was also the first to offer extensive VIP suites, condominiums, an “all-you-can-eat” grandstand section and extravagant pre-race entertainment. Wheeler is known to recreate war scenes fully equipped with explosions for the Memorial Day event.
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