With fire-breathing robots and death-defying school-bus stunts, he brought spectacle to stock-car racing as the sport boomed in the 1970s and beyond.

Humpy Wheeler, a pioneering motorsports promoter and former president and general manager of Charlotte Motor Speedway, has died, NASCAR said. He was 86.

Former Charlotte Motor Speedway executive Humpy Wheeler has died at the age of 86, NASCAR announced. The “innovative track promoter,” as NASCAR described him, helped propel the sport onto the national stage in the ’70s during his tenure as the general manager of Charlotte Motor Speedway.