Talk About Life In The Fast Lane

In mid-June, the day before a 300-mile stock-car race at his Michigan International Speedway, Roger S. Penske got word that a brutal heat wave had softened an 800-foot stretch of the track's new asphalt. If the pavement shredded, as it threatened to do, the race might not run and Penske would both lose money and suffer the sharp embarrassment of disappointing 100,000 fans, a host of sponsors, and a national television audience.

Roger Penske doesn't tolerate embarrassment. So the silver-haired former race-car driver picked up a push broom, grabbed a dozen of his employees, and worked until 1:30 the next morning alternately scrubbing lime into the track and running cold water over it in a feverish effort to harden the surface. It worked. Just 12 hours later, two dozen stock-car drivers were zooming around the two-mile oval at 180 miles per hour.