Video: Humpy Wheeler tries to solve what’s wrong with IndyCar

As one of the greatest promoters in NASCAR history, Humpy Wheeler has never been short of ideas. And in his latest YouTube dispatch, the former president and GM of Charlotte Motor Speedway puts his mind toward trying to revive IndyCar racing’s mainstream presence.

In the five-minute-plus video, Wheeler commends IndyCar for its great on-track product but also critiques it on several fronts. To start off, he believes that the open-wheelers are simply too quick for those in the grandstands and that they need to be slowed down.

From there, he says that the IndyCar starting grid needs to be increased at every race to 33, which is the number of cars that take the green every May for the Indianapolis 500.

But then, he proceeds to go off on a tangent about the importance of the younger fans and how IndyCar should cater to them.

“You’re entertaining people – Who’s leading the race? What does he look like?" he says. “Little kid, 12 years old, he goes to a race. He’s been in video games, he’s seen all this great stuff. He can’t tell which car is which. You can’t confuse those people. They’re not coming back to a race if you confuse ‘em!

“He’s not confusing a monster truck show, because monster trucks are big and huge, they got teeth, all these things on ‘em. IndyCars are little teeny cars. A 12-year-old boy – why should he like ‘em? Grow that car up, folks! Make it geared toward the 12-year-old, because the 12-year-old is tomorrow’s race fan."

Finally, he closes with the thought that IndyCar ought to seek out more American drivers from the short-track ranks.

“[Foreign drivers] add to the spice, but let’s get some Saturday night heroes out of America and stick them in IndyCars," he said. “That’s what’s made NASCAR so good – they got a great field of drivers from around the country."