Johnson says Wheeler is not only great promoter, but also a fine athlete
By SceneDaily Staff
Thursday, May 22, 2008
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CONCORD, N.C. – While drivers across NASCAR are reacting to the news that Lowe’s Motor Speedway President Humpy Wheeler is abruptly leaving his role after this weekend, Jimmie Johnson brought a unique perspective to the promoter.
Johnson, who says that he hopes Wheeler remains in the racing industry in some capacity, deemed the promoter a “generous and gracious man,” but added that he’s also a great athlete.
A few years ago – Johnson can’t remember if it was 1999 or 2000 – the driver stepped into the boxing ring with Wheeler. He was surprised by the way the outing went.
Wheeler, now 69, didn’t lightly spar with the future Cup champion. Instead, he worked to get Johnson fired up.
“First of all he sends me around, we’re in the racquetball courts actually, [and] has me punching the wall and wearing my arms out pretty well,” Johnson said Thursday at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, site of this weekend’s Coca-Cola 600. “Then we square off and as we’re kind of fake boxing, he lands a couple of punches on me and I’m like, ‘Man, he’s punching me.’ So I swing back a few times and he’s excited and he’s like, ‘All right, there we go, now I’m getting that fire in you.’”
Then, Wheeler began schooling the driver on how to defend himself in the ring.
“He’d tell me, ‘All right, now your gloves are too low, I’m going to hit you in the head.’ And I’d hear him say it and sure enough he’d hit me in the head,” Johnson said. “So I put my hands up to block my head and he goes, ‘Too high’ and he’d hit me in the stomach. I never thought [we] would be in a position to punch each other. But it was a lot of fun and he is quite an athlete.”
Johnson laughs about the incident now, though he admits that it wasn’t what he had planned when he initially strapped on his gloves.
“I thought I was going to take it easy on him, one, and two I was afraid to hit him,” he said. “But he hit me pretty hard, so just out of
being punched I reacted and hit him back pretty good. And he was like, ‘All right, there we go, there’s a little fire, that’s what I’m looking for.’ “And it was just such an odd thing to be sitting there punching Humpy Wheeler.”
Now, Johnson says he’s surprised to learn that Wheeler will be leaving his role after this weekend’s race.
And, in all seriousness, he says that he’ll miss the innovative promoter being on hand at LMS in the future.
“He’s done so much for our sport and has really been the ultimate promoter and I just can’t thank him enough for what he has done for our sport and the positive impact he has left in it, the generous and gracious man that he’s been and certainly [we are] going to miss him in that role,” Johnson said.
- Mentioned Drivers:
- Jimmie Johnson
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