CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Humpy Wheeler announced his retirement as president and general manager of Lowe's Motor Speedway on Wednesday, ending a 33-year career as one of NASCAR's top promoters.

Wheeler will step down after Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 at the track near Charlotte. No replacement was selected for the 69-year-old Wheeler, who plans to write a book and host a television show.

Wheeler said he first considered retirement about a year ago, although he sidestepped a question on whether the decision to leave was completely his. Wheeler's boss is Speedway Motorsports CEO Bruton Smith, who hired Wheeler in 1975 and made him track president a year later. Smith was not present at Wednesday's news conference.

"Some of it is on my own terms. I won't say it all is," Wheeler said. "Some of it is and I'll let it rest at that."

Reached at his office Wednesday afternoon, Smith denied he forced Wheeler out.

"Six months ago we had a meeting and he told me then that he had discussed retiring," Smith said. "He was laying the groundwork quite some time ago. It was not unexpected."

Wheeler joked that his retirement announcement wasn't simply a gimmick to sell tickets for this weekend's race, before adding, "but if it does, that's OK."

Wheeler has done almost anything to get fans to his track. He employed magicians, used back-flipping dogs, re-enacted war scenes in elaborate pre-race shows and emphasized driver rivalries to sell the sport and make his track one of the premier locations in NASCAR.

John Cox with the Cabarrus Regional Chamber of Commerce said Wheeler’s retirement is a big blow to the area.

“What happens when Mohammed Ali quits boxing? The sport changes," he said. “There will be a big vacuum in this sport with Humpy's departure, but it's going to continue and do fine here.”

"Humpy Wheeler is a true legend in motorsports and his contributions will be missed," said Smith in statement. "His career with Lowe's Motor Speedway and Speedway Motorsports Inc., has been filled with many innovative promotions and I am sure that he will be remembered as one of the greatest promoters in racing history."

Wheeler was also behind several of the sport's innovations. To prevent NASCAR from moving the All-Star race to Richmond, Va., Wheeler vowed to make his track the first superspeedway to erect lights. The NASCAR Sprint All-Star race has made LMS its permanent home, while running on Saturday night.

LMS, formerly Charlotte Motor Speedway, was also the first major track to reach a naming rights deal. Under his management, the track expanded its seating capacity to 167,000, and was the first track to offer extensive VIP suites, condominiums and extravagant pre-race entertainment.

"People that don't even know his name became NASCAR fans solely due to Humpy's creative promotions," said Eddie Gossage, president of Texas Motor Speedway. "I know that I am a far better promoter as a result of being a graduate of 'Humpy University."'

New Hampshire Motor Speedway executive vice president and general manager Jerry Gappens compared Wheeler to P.T. Barnum, Walt Disney and Don King.

"He entertained fans like P.T. Barnum by creating that three-ring circus atmosphere in Charlotte. Humpy had the vision to see into the future and paid attention to detail like Disney. He promoted every race like Don King promoted heavyweight title fights," said Gappens, who worked under Wheeler at LMS for 15 years.

A tireless worker and cutthroat negotiator, Wheeler spent countless hours at the track and befriended numerous drivers. He was known as a stickler for details and was a calm influence during tragedy.

Wheeler's lowest point came in 1999, when three spectators were killed and eight others injured from flying debris from a wreck during an Indy Racing League race. Wheeler immediately canceled the rest of the race and the IRL has yet to return to the track.

"As long as I was running the place there would not have been another one here," Wheeler said.

Wheeler also helped develop other forms of racing. He was instrumental in the development of the Legends Car and said he hopes to develop another low-cost car that will help make sure talented drivers don't miss out on the sport because of the cost.

"The biggest thing that worries me about racing in the future is we don't get the great race drivers," Wheeler said. "That we leave out the next Kyle Busch or the next Dale Earnhardt Sr. because a guy can't afford to race and gets stuck in the cornfields of Iowa."

He'll have no consulting role with the track after Sunday's finale.

"It's just one of those things. It's time to go," Wheeler said. "It's not something I'm really looking forward to. But there just comes a time and place when you've got to move on."

Wheeler said this was just the time to do it so he can enjoy the years he has left.

Possible candidates to succeed him 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.

Smith has a news conference scheduled for Thursday.

Wheeler’s Antics Legendary

After Cale Yarborough gave Darrell Waltrip the derisive nickname "Jaws," Wheeler pounced -- bringing a giant dead shark to the track, placing a dead chicken in its mouth and sending it around the track on a flatbed truck before a race.

He prides himself as a master prognosticator, annually predicting the winner of the All-Star race in grand fashion. Last week, Wheeler used a backflipping dog to predict the acrobatic Carl Edwards would win Saturday night's $1 million sprint. He didn't.

Wheeler's had just two right since 2001 after correctly picking six of seven winners from 1989-95.

"There will never be another Humpy Wheeler," said NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter, a teammate of Wheeler's on the South Carolina football team who often went head-to-head against him as a rival promoter of Darlington Raceway.

"He had no fear, and he may have rubbed some people the wrong way, but he kept Charlotte in the news constantly. Constantly," Hunter said. "You'd never know we had races in Darlington because of all the work Humpy did to steal our headlines."

Wheeler was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2006.

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.

Wheeler began promoting races three years later when he organized Saturday afternoon bicycle races to get out of mowing lawns and delivering papers. He slowly climbed the promotions ladder -- working as a sports writer, television director, real estate manager, dirt track promoter and director of racing at Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. -- until Smith hired him to run the speedway.

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.

He was on board in 1995 when Smith went public with Speedway Motorsports Inc., the first motorsports company to trade on the New York Stock Exchange, and Wheeler became president of SMI.