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Sprint Cup
HEMBREE: Jim Hunter – A True NASCAR Character
Executive’s departure leaves a huge void...
NASCAR Vice President of Communications Jim Hunter speaks after the during the inaugural NASCAR Hall of Fame class press conference on October 14, 2009 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
(Photo: Getty Images)
Thousands of individuals – drivers, mechanics, team owners, officials, administrators, journalists – have come and gone in the 60-year history of NASCAR.
Some leave no mark and few memories. Jim Hunter was not in that group.
In a sport built on characters, Hunter ranks near the top. He never drove a competitive lap or ran a racing team, but he floated around the top level of the sport for decades and was in on some of the biggest decisions that impacted stock car racing’s direction and momentum.
He was a data bank of information about racers and racing, and he was a supreme storyteller.
Hunter was friends with virtually everybody in the sport – drivers, team owners, officials, journalists, parking lot attendants – and almost everybody had a story or two to tell about him Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway as word spread that Hunter had died Friday night in Daytona Beach, Fla. after a year-long battle with cancer.
Many of them began this way: “Do you remember that time that Hunter and …..,” and you could fill in the blanks with any number of names of individuals who had shared an adventure or misadventure with Hunter over the years.
He was the face of the sport for many years in his role as NASCAR vice president of corporate communications. This meant that he was the main link between the carpeted offices in Daytona Beach and the news media, and this often placed him in uncomfortable territory. But he was comfortable in it. As his long-time boss, former NASCAR president Bill France Jr., often asked him, “Well, Hunter, what are your damn newspaper buddies talking about this week?”
Hunter was devoted to France Jr. and was his most trusted confidant. He was particularly close to France in the final years of the NASCAR leader’s life as he continued to work while struggling with a cancer battle of his own.
Hunter was with me on an afternoon in Las Vegas a few years back as I walked to a scheduled interview appointment with France in a spacious suite atop one of the city’s luxurious hotels. That interview never happened, as France, then using a mobile chair to get around and taking oxygen regularly, had a sudden health problem as we were about to begin our session. France was in obvious pain and near collapse at the door of the suite as Hunter and another associate tended to him, and our immediate fear was that his deteriorating health had led to a heart attack.
Despite causing a hand wound as he tried to steady himself against the door, France recovered quickly. He sat down and, as he tried to regain his composure, said, “Get over here, Hunter, damnit.”
It was not the first – or last – time Hunter responded to that command.
Hunter sometimes had to explain and defend corporate decisions that were difficult to explain and defend, and you knew that, in his heart, Hunter fell on the other side of the fence on some of them. But he had a job to do and he was a good soldier, and, to his eternal credit, the conflict that sometimes develops between a person in his position and the people who must persistently question him never became personal.
His love for the sport was built at old Columbia Speedway on the outskirts of Columbia, S.C. He often talked of watching races there while standing on a flatbed truck in the infield as the legends of NASCAR’s early years wrestled through the turns.
He moved on from a racing writer’s job to motorsports public relations and ultimately to numerous administrative jobs with NASCAR and in the speedway community. He built friendships in boardrooms, in speedway infields and on golf courses.
Hunter, who died at the too-young age of 71, had trimmed his schedule in recent years. He was hit hard by the 2007 death of France Jr., and he had told friends that he didn’t plan to work through his final days like his mentor, that he wanted to take some time for family and golf. Although he loved racing, I never saw him happier than standing on the first tee on a sunny morning on a golf course.
His illness invaded those plans, but, before the steep decline of his last months, he made the rounds of race tracks and got in some final rounds on favorite courses.
Those of us who played in those foursomes, who listened to his hundreds of stories from days both good and bad, who shared meals across many tables over these many years, will miss him greatly. As will his sport.
Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 28 years. He has written several books on NASCAR, including "NASCAR: The Definitive History of America's Sport" and "Then Tony Said To Junior: The Best NASCAR Stories Ever Told". He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
Some leave no mark and few memories. Jim Hunter was not in that group.
In a sport built on characters, Hunter ranks near the top. He never drove a competitive lap or ran a racing team, but he floated around the top level of the sport for decades and was in on some of the biggest decisions that impacted stock car racing’s direction and momentum.
He was a data bank of information about racers and racing, and he was a supreme storyteller.
Hunter was friends with virtually everybody in the sport – drivers, team owners, officials, journalists, parking lot attendants – and almost everybody had a story or two to tell about him Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway as word spread that Hunter had died Friday night in Daytona Beach, Fla. after a year-long battle with cancer.
Many of them began this way: “Do you remember that time that Hunter and …..,” and you could fill in the blanks with any number of names of individuals who had shared an adventure or misadventure with Hunter over the years.
He was the face of the sport for many years in his role as NASCAR vice president of corporate communications. This meant that he was the main link between the carpeted offices in Daytona Beach and the news media, and this often placed him in uncomfortable territory. But he was comfortable in it. As his long-time boss, former NASCAR president Bill France Jr., often asked him, “Well, Hunter, what are your damn newspaper buddies talking about this week?”
Hunter was devoted to France Jr. and was his most trusted confidant. He was particularly close to France in the final years of the NASCAR leader’s life as he continued to work while struggling with a cancer battle of his own.
Hunter was with me on an afternoon in Las Vegas a few years back as I walked to a scheduled interview appointment with France in a spacious suite atop one of the city’s luxurious hotels. That interview never happened, as France, then using a mobile chair to get around and taking oxygen regularly, had a sudden health problem as we were about to begin our session. France was in obvious pain and near collapse at the door of the suite as Hunter and another associate tended to him, and our immediate fear was that his deteriorating health had led to a heart attack.
Despite causing a hand wound as he tried to steady himself against the door, France recovered quickly. He sat down and, as he tried to regain his composure, said, “Get over here, Hunter, damnit.”
It was not the first – or last – time Hunter responded to that command.
Hunter sometimes had to explain and defend corporate decisions that were difficult to explain and defend, and you knew that, in his heart, Hunter fell on the other side of the fence on some of them. But he had a job to do and he was a good soldier, and, to his eternal credit, the conflict that sometimes develops between a person in his position and the people who must persistently question him never became personal.
His love for the sport was built at old Columbia Speedway on the outskirts of Columbia, S.C. He often talked of watching races there while standing on a flatbed truck in the infield as the legends of NASCAR’s early years wrestled through the turns.
He moved on from a racing writer’s job to motorsports public relations and ultimately to numerous administrative jobs with NASCAR and in the speedway community. He built friendships in boardrooms, in speedway infields and on golf courses.
Hunter, who died at the too-young age of 71, had trimmed his schedule in recent years. He was hit hard by the 2007 death of France Jr., and he had told friends that he didn’t plan to work through his final days like his mentor, that he wanted to take some time for family and golf. Although he loved racing, I never saw him happier than standing on the first tee on a sunny morning on a golf course.
His illness invaded those plans, but, before the steep decline of his last months, he made the rounds of race tracks and got in some final rounds on favorite courses.
Those of us who played in those foursomes, who listened to his hundreds of stories from days both good and bad, who shared meals across many tables over these many years, will miss him greatly. As will his sport.
Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 28 years. He has written several books on NASCAR, including "NASCAR: The Definitive History of America's Sport" and "Then Tony Said To Junior: The Best NASCAR Stories Ever Told". He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
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