The premise was disarmingly simple: a race bringing together the best drivers in motorsport, all competing in identical cars, in a spectacle designed around the requirements of television. It would consist of three forty-five-minute races over a weekend at the end of the 1973 season, followed by a final in February 1974. The idea was essentially that of ambitious car dealer and race entrant Roger Penske.
Today, the Penske Corporation is one of the biggest names in the automotive world, and its president is one of its leading figures—an obvious candidate, said Motor Trend in 2013, to take the helm at General Motors (and by implication, run it properly).
