Claire had some excerpts from the press conference on XM last night, but I didn't catch it all. Here's some telling comments from an ESPN article quoted at Jayski:
"UPDATE 2: The announcement was scheduled to be made next Wednesday, but was pushed up after a disagreement between Wheeler and Bruton Smith, the chairman of Speedway Motorsports Inc. that owns LMS. "The suddenness was not my idea," Wheeler said. "I would have liked to have stayed around a little bit, just eased out a little easier. … Maybe in a part-time role." The 69-year-old promoter that was hired by Smith before the October race in 1975 said no part-time offer was made. Asked if he was given that option Wheeler said, "No." Asked if he would remain with the track in any capacity Wheeler bluntly said, "None." Smith, who did not attend the press conference that was thrown together quickly after news of the retirement leaked out Tuesday night, said Wheeler was offered the chance to stay as a consultant. "To my knowledge, nothing has changed," he said. Smith said Wheeler was offered a consultant's salary for five years beyond the $12,500 a month that SMI has agreed to pay him over the next 10 years. He added that Wheeler holds 151 shares of stock options with the company and that he has to stay involved to execute them. Smith said he did not attend the press conference because he was not invited and because he didn't want to take away from Wheeler's moment. "It was his press conference," he said. "Not mine."(see full stor yand comments at ESPN.com)
AND Marcus Smith, the executive vice president of sales and marketing for Speedway Motorsports Inc., is the leading candidate to be voted to replace Lowe's Motor Speedway president and general manager H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler next week. Several sources close to the situation said the son of SMI owner Bruton Smith is the "appropriate choice" to replace Wheeler. Marcus Smith, attending Wednesday's news conference to announce Wheeler's retirement, was noncommittal.(ESPN.com)(5-21-2008)"
To me, it sounds like the "blood is thicker than water" deal. And we saw how well that has worked for NA$CAR. Bruton is making a HUGE mistake IMHO...no one is going to be as good of an ambassador for the fans or liaison between SMI and ISC.
Here's a very good article by Deb Williams with a lot of quotes by Humpy:
http://www.gofastnews.com/board/sprint-cup/924-humpy-wheeler-steps-aside-his-choice-leave-mid-season.html P.S. I'm going to try and merge this topic with the one I started in chit-chat yesterday, just so everyone's comments are all together.
Cheryl
