He doesn't like races profiling his channel.

• Author: Rauch, Joe
• Position: PEOPLE - Hunter Nickell

For Hunter Nickell, it all came back to cars. He was born in Detroit, the center of the U.S. automotive-manufacturing universe. Now he's executive vice president and general manager of Speed Channel in Charlotte, a city that claims to be the center of the racing universe.

In June, Nickell, 49, replaced Jim Liberatore, who had been in charge since Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. bought the cable channel in 2001 and moved it from Connecticut. That's the same year that the Fox network, another News Corp. property, began broadcasting NASCAR races. But Nickell bristles at the suggestion that Speed Channel only covers stock-car racing. "We've got everything from Grand Prix motorcycle racing to car-restoration programming. We're a lifestyle channel."

Speed Channel is available in about 63.4 million households in the United States. It does not disclose annual revenue, widely estimated to exceed $200 million. Nickell has negotiated a deal to carry another motorcycle series and is working on renewing the channel's deal to show Formula One races.

His father worked in sales and management for vendors to Detroit's Big Three, giving Nickell a childhood opportunity to fall in love with cars. "I'm not an automotive enthusiast in the traditional sense. I don't collect cars, but I've always been around them and always been continually amazed by them." He has stayed loyal to Detroit: He drives a black 2004 Chevrolet Impala.

When he...