But Humphrey was among about 40 ISC employees laid off since August in cutbacks at the company that owns 12 tracks that NASCAR races on. Daytona International Speedway President Robin Braig was among those let go.

“I was fortunate enough to get a heads up that my department was one of the ones that would be looked at to possibly be eliminated,” Humphrey said.

Humphrey replaces Jeff Ewing, who will move to the Bruno Event Team’s golf division. Zoom Motorsports is a division of the Bruno Event Team.

At Barber, Humphrey will oversee a much different track from the high-banked 2.66-mile oval at Talladega that hosts two NASCAR Sprint Cup races each year.

Barber is a 2.38-mile road course that hosts the NASCAR-owned Grand Am Series, the IZOD IndyCar Series and the AMA Pro Superbike Series.

“During my time at ISC I have gained some knowledge of Grand Am and the IRL,” Humphrey said.

He was also involved in ISC’s negotiations with the IndyCar Series about whether the open-wheel series would continue to race on ISC tracks. IndyCar ended up dropping all four of ISC’s tracks — Homestead, Chicago, Kansas and Watkins Glen — from its 2011 schedule because of disappointment with ISC’s marketing of IndyCar races.

Despite the ISC-IndyCar split, Barber has always had a close relationship with Talladega. Talladega, for instance, has loaned its trams to Barber to shuttle fans around the track.

For the spring races, which are only a week apart, the tracks are planning to offer special package deals to see both the April 10 IndyCar race at Barber and the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Talladega on April 17, plus spend the week in between playing golf.

Still, Humphrey said, he doesn’t regret leaving Talladega for Daytona.

“You never look back,” he said of his decision to take the ISC job and leave Talladega. “Nobody knew what would happen when we moved down here.”

Fortunately, he said, he had not yet bought a house in Daytona Beach, so moving back to Alabama will be easier, even though “we’ve been unsettled for eight months.”

But he does admit he’ll miss the NASCAR culture.

“It’s been a part of my life since ’92 or ’93,” he said. “So yes.”