After nearly six years at the helm of Daytona International Speedway, Joie Chitwood officially ascended to the role of chief operating officer of track owner International Speedway Corp. two weeks ago. A few days into the role, Chitwood spoke with SportsBusiness Journal staff writer Adam Stern about the move.
■ Why were you comfortable with the step up to ISC chief operating officer?
CHITWOOD: In my old role as president of Daytona, we had oversight of some of the racetracks in our system — specifically Phoenix and Miami — so I’ve been assisting and providing supervision to those. Knowing the racetrack properties, we work well together in our system; there’s a lot of best-practice sharing [and] collaboration. So for me, working with the other tracks is something I’ve already been able to do with the company in some form.
■ What’s your vision for the new role?
CHITWOOD: It starts with getting out to the tracks, so I’ll be at Talladega [Superspeedway] this weekend and Kansas [Speedway] next weekend. I was on the phone today with Scott Paddock of Chicagoland and Dave Allen of Auto Club Speedway, so it’s just connecting with everybody, chatting about their schedules and when I can visit their properties.
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“There’s not going to be a Joie vision, per se; there’s an ISC vision, and that starts with our CEO.”
— Joie Chitwood
COO, International Speedway Corp.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
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There’s not going to be a Joie vision, per se; there’s an ISC vision, and that starts with our CEO, Lesa France Kennedy. I’m just excited that the France family has the confidence in me to take on more responsibility and that I can keep helping the company focus on the right things.
■ How will your role contrast to that of ISC President John Saunders?
CHITWOOD: John and I have known each other for a very long time. We wouldn’t have been successful at Daytona without John’s support. He leads our senior management group, so he was instrumental in assisting us in how we got our approvals, so I’m looking forward to continuing my relationship with John.
We’re a big company with a lot of racetracks, inventory, business, so John and I are going to continue to collaborate and look for solutions for everybody. That really starts with Lesa’s vision for the company and doing our best to live up to that. I reported directly to John as the president of Daytona; I report directly to him as chief operating officer. So hopefully we’ll continue to do exactly what we do, which is push the goals for everybody, and hopefully everyone achieves success.
■ What will you look to replicate from Daytona Rising at other ISC tracks?
CHITWOOD: We’ve already stated that Phoenix and Richmond are on our radar in terms of the next tracks in terms of [renovation] potential. So we have to work through that in terms of the design elements, business plans, what’s the rationale, how do we justify the investments? So those are the two we want to focus on next. … Long term, we’ll look at the other venues and anything else we can do to operate the business better.
■ How confident are you in your replacement at Daytona, former Darlington Speedway President Chip Wile?
CHITWOOD: We have very high expectations for Chip. He did such a great job at Darlington in really bringing the industry together to do something very special, which nobody had done before with the retro event. So that energy and enthusiasm and getting the industry behind something — those are great, positive things. … I don’t think we’re going to miss a beat, and we’re going to make sure he has all the support he needs.
Daytona is our flagship brand, it will continue to be our flagship brand, and I think everybody is going to continue to stay focused on that.
