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Joie Chitwood III, former teenage stunt car racer and grandson of 1940s racing legend George Rice “Joie” Chitwood, has a favorite business quote from, not surprisingly, Mario Andretti.

Andretti once told Chitwood, now the president of Daytona International Speedway, that business opportunities come and go with the blur of well, a fast car, so speed is essential. “If everything seems under control,” Andretti told Chitwood, “you're not going fast enough.”

Chitwood embodies that philosophy in his current position, where he oversees the iconic Daytona Speedway, world-famous for the Daytona 500 held every February. The speedway, beyond the Daytona 500, hosts at least 200 events and races a year, down to motorcycles and go-karts.

Chitwood is also the lead executive over Daytona Rising, a massive $400 million renovation project that's one of the more significant redevelopments of a sports-tourism facility in Florida. Officials say Daytona Rising, which broke ground in July 2013, will put a badly needed new face on the track. Some of the seats — brightly colored folding metal chairs — were installed in 1959, and the only way to the top floors, which have expansive views of the track, is to climb seven stories.

The new Daytona Speedway will have five expanded and redesigned entrances, called injectors, which will take spectators to a series of escalators and elevators to get to one of three concourse levels. The new track will have 100,000 permanent seats that executives say will be wider and more comfortable. Plans also call to double the restrooms and triple the number of concession stands.

Daytona, finally, will join counterparts in other sports when it adds big-money luxury suites. There will be more than 60 high-end suites with trackside views and upgraded hospitality service at the new Daytona Speedway. “We need to be the trendsetters,” says Chitwood, who has also held executive positions at Chicagoland Speedway and Indianapolis Motor Speedway. “We need to be aggressive and unique. We plan to do something no one else has ever done.”

Chitwood, with an M.B.A. from the University of South Florida, says the project combines healthy risk with large potential. “I'm in the racing business, and that's about being the first one to cross the finish line and win the checkered flag,” he says. “And as business people we have to be doing the same thing. You always have to move forward and stay in motion. I don't think sitting back and letting things lie is the right way to go.”

Chitwood recently spent a day with students on the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus, prior to homecoming weekend, where he was honored in an alumni parade. He spoke with the Business Observer about his career and Daytona Rising. Here are edited excepts:

What have been the biggest challenges at Daytona Rising?
What's a real challenge for us is we have to operate the venue while we build it. We don't have the luxury of building across the street like some of these stick-and-ball sports do. We still have to run this property. We have the Daytona 500 every year, and you're building and running at the same time, so it's been a unique challenge. That's why it will take us two-and-a-half years. We're hustling, and I think we will do a good job. But there's a lot of work to do.

What are some of the keys that have helped you become a better decision-maker in your career?
You gain experience and learn along the way. You definitely want to have the best team possible. I don't think (companies) spend enough time understanding the talents or investing in talent and helping them get ready. If you have a good team, then it's really about rubber-stamping a strategy. If you don't then you have to invest a lot more of your own time to make sure things are moving in the right direction.

How have you found the right talent to build that kind of team in your career?
It's tough as a young person to find talent versus whether you like someone. That's a tough situation for a manager, and it's tough for a younger person to get comfortable in that environment. I think as you gain experience you could see the talent in people a little quicker. So for us at Daytona, I have very little concerns about who we have on board.

You also have to make sure the right person is working on the right part of the project and complements the team. When you are young it's tougher to see that. You don't want any square pegs in round holes, and that's not easy. That's something USF helped me understand.

How do you evaluate and weigh risk when making a big decision?
So much comes to the investment you are willing to make for the return, the resources you have to devote to it and what's the upside and what's the downside. If it's a project you feel like you have got to do, regardless of the risk, then it's all about having the best plan. If it's a project that you are not sure about, it's really about the downside. What is the risk to not doing this? That helps guide me.

You've held executive positions at three prominent racetracks: Chicagoland Speedway, Indianapolis Motor Speedway and now Daytona. What was the best stop for building your career?
In my career the place where I learned the most was building Chicagoland Speedway. (Chitwood oversaw development and construction and then ran the 1.5-mile track from 1999 to 2002.) I was younger and working for a partnership between the Indy folks and the Daytona folks. That was a neat reporting structure. And building a property in Joliet, a suburb of Chicago, dealing with politics, the union, I really learned a lot. That was such a unique experience.

What are some of the characteristics that define a strong leader?
You have to have the ability to speak publicly. You have to be able to express yourself clearly, coherently and with confidence, which generates enthusiasm and represents the brand.
That's a huge skill set that you need to move forward to be a leader in terms of delivering a message and being able to command a room. I can't stress enough how important that is. I've seen really smart people who can't get their message out, and that's really disappointing. And I've seen other people who might not be as smart, but they have captured my attention.

How have you become a better speaker?
I don't think it just happens. It's not something that's in your genes. You have to practice. You have to be critiqued. Whenever I do an interview, whether it's print, TV or radio, I ask my team members, how'd I do? Did I hit the message points? Did I stumble? Even to this day, and I've done this a long time, I have to be prepared to take criticism. I want to get better.

How do you keep your ego in check to take constructive criticism?
Criticism isn't fun. Nobody enjoys it. But it's important that no matter how accomplished a leader you think are, no matter how many racetracks you've run, that you can always work to be better. You have to put your pride on the shelf.

Whom do you admire and why in business and leadership?
I don't have to look far. They are in the motorsports world. Roger Penske in terms of his brand what he has done for his name. There are so many great things he's done. I've had a relationship with him for a long time. My grandfather knew him.

And the France family and Big Bill France are really great business minds who built wonderful brands. (Nascar co-founder William Henry Getty) France was a gas station owner in Daytona who was promoting racing on the beaches. He had this vision to build the Daytona International Speedway, and here we are 50-plus years later and it's the world center of racing and a unique historic property. It took a lot of intestinal fortitude to build that track because back then Nascar (stock car) racing wasn't the most popular form of racing in this country. It was looked down upon. The big cars at Indy were the popular ones.

At a glance: Joie Chitwood III
Position: President, Daytona International Speedway. Runs all activities at the speedway, including events, fan amenities and ticket sales. Chitwood was named president in 2010.

Previous work: Vice president of business operations for Daytona-based International Speedway Corp., which operates 12 motorsports facilities nationwide, including Daytona International Speedway; president and COO of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where he ran daily operations for the track and connected properties Brickyard Crossing Inn and Brickyard Crossing Golf Course; general manager of Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill.

Education: A business administration and finance degree from the University of Florida and an M.B.A. from the University of South Florida. Also studied at Cambridge University in England.

Stunt work: Member of the Chitwood Thrill Show, a three-generation family-run stunt driving and entertainment business, from when he was a young boy to his early 20s. He drove car-carrier trucks for the business, and for a time he played the human battering ram role in the shows.

Forename: The unusual spelling of Chitwood's first name, according to a book about his grandfather, George Rice “Joie” Chitwood, comes from a typo. In “Safe at Any Speed: The Great Double Career of Joie Chitwood”, the eldest Chitwood recounts how a press agent, in 1937, wrote a release without knowing the driver's first name. The agent guessed, wrongly, that it was Joe. Then it was spelled wrong, Joie, when it ran in the paper. But the name stuck.

Source: International Speedway Corp.

Daytona Rising
The $400 million renovation of Daytona Rising is one of the more significant redevelopments of a sports-tourism facility in Florida. The new track will have 100,000 permanent seats, double the restrooms, triple the number of concession stands, five expanded and redesigned entrances and more than 60 high-end suites with trackside views and upgraded hospitality service. “We need to be aggressive and unique,” says Chitwood. “We plan to do something no one else has ever done.”

Executive Summary
Executive. Joie Chitwood, Daytona International Speedway Industry. Motorsports, development Key. Great leaders put pride aside and accept criticism to become better.