Queen of the rock keeps family business on track.

• Position: North Carolina Motor Speedway Pres and CEO Jo Wilson

Jo Wilson is president and CEO of North Carolina Motor Speedway in Rockingham. But to stock-car racing fans, she's queen of the Rock. She has run the 75,000-capacity speedway since 1994, when she became the only woman to head one of NASCAR's 18 tracks.

Her father, L.G. DeWitt, built the privately held raceway in 1965 with a host of investors and ran it until he died in 1990. When his successor, Frank Wilson (no relation), passed away in 1994, the board picked her to replace him.

Her family owns about 70% of the company, but Wilson won't reveal the most sensitive information: its revenues and her age. Still, some simple math shows why she calls the business "very healthy." At least 130,000 people pay an average of $45 a ticket for the Rock's two Winston Cup races each year. That adds up to roughly $5.9 million. The raceway also has two Busch Grand National races and generates profits from concessions, parking and private promoters, who rent out the track 45 weekends a year. Simple math also puts her around 59, assuming she was 22 when she graduated from college in 1959. "Put it at 39," she says.

Wilson is on the board of her father's first business, Rockingham-based L.G. DeWitt Trucking Co., which sister Nancy Daugherty runs. Their mother, 84-year-old Carrie DeWitt, chairs both boards. "She goes to the trucking company in...