Two months after adding President of Daytona Int'l Speedway to his résumé, the first NASCAR race weekend comes this week for Chip Wile, who officially succeeded Joie Chitwood III on May 1. After going from being president of one of the sport’s smaller tracks in Darlington, S.C., to its premier facility in Daytona Beach, Wile is getting into the office earlier these days and jokes he is getting less sleep. Wile, who has since been succeeded at Darlington by NASCAR Senior Dir of Competition Communications Kerry Tharp, spoke about his transition, trepidations and targets for the new role.
Q: How are you feeling heading into your first NASCAR race weekend as President of Daytona?
Wile: Any time you’re preparing for a NASCAR or motorsports event of this magnitude, you get a little anxious. I would argue if you don’t, it’s probably not the right business for you to be in. Somebody asked me yesterday, “Are you going to get butterflies before you get up on stage to make the official welcome on behalf of the France family and Daytona Int'l Speedway?” That kind of hit me, and I’ve thought about that a couple of times when I’m laying in bed at night: “What are you going to say, and how are you going to represent the company and family in an appropriate way?”
Q: How has the transition gone from being president of a smaller track to the sport’s premier one?
Wile: Just the amount of people. At Darlington, we had 12 full-time employees, and then you move here and you have over 100. So it’s trying to figure out the different departments, and then the groups within each department and who does what. What’s been smoother is we’re dealing with the same people. The fundamentals of the job are the same.
Q: How are you trying to brand the Coke Zero 400 to ensure fans have an incentive to come even if they were at that year’s Daytona 500?
Wile: This is a very different event than the Daytona 500, because obviously it’s at night, it’s on Fourth of July weekend. We spend a ton of time and effort around the Fourth of July weekend and celebrating that, so we’re going to focus a lot of energy around our military and servicemen and women.
Q: How has Joie Chitwood helped as he adjusts to becoming ISC's COO?
Wile: Joie Chitwood and I have spent a lot of time together; he’s been such an amazing resource for me, going to him and asking the right questions. He’s helping me think through things the way they do down here ... and has accepted his role for me as kind of my mentor here in Daytona. I get here early every morning and we spend quite a bit of time before everybody gets to work just kind of walking through our days.
Q: How did Daytona 500 ticket renewals go and how do you try to make sure next year has a comparable amount of buzz?
Wile: The team here does an incredible job year after year of making it bigger and better than the year before, and that’s a tough task, especially after last year and all the effort put behind opening the new Daytona Int'l Speedway. We have a tall task: We sold it out last year, and certainly that’s the goal again. We understand that we have some work to do and think we’re off to a good start.
