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Sprint Cup
CUP: NHoF Inductions - Bill France Sr.
Bill France Sr. brought order, legitimacy to sport...
Bill France Sr. and NASCAR emerged from the 1940s as the premier stock-car racing series in the United States. (Photo: ISC Archives/Getty Images)
Bill France Sr. was a big man, standing 6-foot-5 and commanding a presence that instantly commanded people’s attention.
John Cassidy, NASCAR’s first attorney and a longtime friend of the France family, will never forget the first time he met the man known as “Big Bill.”
“The door to my office opened up, and there stood one of the biggest men I had ever seen. He literally filled the doorway,” said Cassidy, an attorney for the Baker Botts law firm in Washington, D.C. and NASCAR’s first legal counsel. “The word 'big' was never that far from Bill France, Sr.'s mind.”
France Sr., who was inducted into NASCAR Hall of Fame Sunday, founded and organized NASCAR in 1948 and spearheaded the growth that made it one of the “biggest” and most popular forms of racing in the country.
Cassidy, who helped induct France Sr. into the inaugural class of the hall of fame, remembers riding around Daytona Beach, Fla., with France one night when “Big Bill” demonstrated his keen perspective on the world and NASCAR’s place in it.
“We were driving up Daytona Beach and over the ocean rose a harvest moon. It was gigantic. It looked like molten gold,” Cassidy recalled. “It's one of the biggest moons I've ever seen.
“And Bill, Sr., who was somewhat of a poet, he looked at me and he said, ‘Son, that's a pretty big moon for a small town like this.’ I loved that.”
It was that kind of perspective and vision that helped France found and organize NASCAR, bringing order and legitimacy to stock-car racing and helping develop it into a regional sport that soon grew into a national phenomenon.
“He emphasized to me that there would come a day when NASCAR and stock-car racing in the NASCAR tradition would become a nationally recognized professional sport,” Cassidy said.
“No one, absolutely no one, deserves to be in the NASCAR Hall of Fame more than Bill France Sr., since there would not have been a NASCAR without Bill.”
Cassidy, who still serves as a legal advisor for NASCAR, said France Sr. helped NASCAR grow to a “level of public acceptance well beyond Bill Sr.'s wildest dreams.”
“Bill frequently was described as a visionary. I don't dispute that,” Cassidy said. “[But] … I prefer to call him a dreamer who was a man of action, someone who turns dreams into reality.”
France Sr. not only founded and organized NASCAR, but he orchestrated its rise from local short tracks to the mammoth superspeedways that now host sport from coast to coast. He and his company built both Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway, ushering in the sport’s speedway era.
“Bill's dreams of growth for NASCAR were only exceeded by his desire that stock-car racing become a recognized and respected professional sport in America,” Cassidy said. “And if he were here today, he would be the very first one to acknowledge that NASCAR has exceeded his dreams.”
France’s son, Jim, NASCAR Vice Chairman, helped induct his father and donated his hall of fame ring back to the hall.
“If Dad were here today, he would be proud, as well, but in a different way,” Jim France said. “He would be proud mostly for NASCAR. He would be proud of this hall of fame, a commitment made to honor our past and to recognize the individuals who are responsible for making NASCAR what it is today, for their great accomplishments.
“The NASCAR Hall of Fame in many ways is the ultimate tribute to my father, the hopes and dreams that he had for our sport.”
NASCAR Hall Of Fame Biography Specials on SPEED
SceneDaily.com • http://www.scenedaily.com/news/articles/sprintcupseries/Kevin Harvick signs contract extension to remain with Richard Childress Racing
John Cassidy, NASCAR’s first attorney and a longtime friend of the France family, will never forget the first time he met the man known as “Big Bill.”
“The door to my office opened up, and there stood one of the biggest men I had ever seen. He literally filled the doorway,” said Cassidy, an attorney for the Baker Botts law firm in Washington, D.C. and NASCAR’s first legal counsel. “The word 'big' was never that far from Bill France, Sr.'s mind.”
France Sr., who was inducted into NASCAR Hall of Fame Sunday, founded and organized NASCAR in 1948 and spearheaded the growth that made it one of the “biggest” and most popular forms of racing in the country.
Cassidy, who helped induct France Sr. into the inaugural class of the hall of fame, remembers riding around Daytona Beach, Fla., with France one night when “Big Bill” demonstrated his keen perspective on the world and NASCAR’s place in it.
“We were driving up Daytona Beach and over the ocean rose a harvest moon. It was gigantic. It looked like molten gold,” Cassidy recalled. “It's one of the biggest moons I've ever seen.
“And Bill, Sr., who was somewhat of a poet, he looked at me and he said, ‘Son, that's a pretty big moon for a small town like this.’ I loved that.”
It was that kind of perspective and vision that helped France found and organize NASCAR, bringing order and legitimacy to stock-car racing and helping develop it into a regional sport that soon grew into a national phenomenon.
“He emphasized to me that there would come a day when NASCAR and stock-car racing in the NASCAR tradition would become a nationally recognized professional sport,” Cassidy said.
“No one, absolutely no one, deserves to be in the NASCAR Hall of Fame more than Bill France Sr., since there would not have been a NASCAR without Bill.”
Cassidy, who still serves as a legal advisor for NASCAR, said France Sr. helped NASCAR grow to a “level of public acceptance well beyond Bill Sr.'s wildest dreams.”
“Bill frequently was described as a visionary. I don't dispute that,” Cassidy said. “[But] … I prefer to call him a dreamer who was a man of action, someone who turns dreams into reality.”
France Sr. not only founded and organized NASCAR, but he orchestrated its rise from local short tracks to the mammoth superspeedways that now host sport from coast to coast. He and his company built both Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway, ushering in the sport’s speedway era.
“Bill's dreams of growth for NASCAR were only exceeded by his desire that stock-car racing become a recognized and respected professional sport in America,” Cassidy said. “And if he were here today, he would be the very first one to acknowledge that NASCAR has exceeded his dreams.”
France’s son, Jim, NASCAR Vice Chairman, helped induct his father and donated his hall of fame ring back to the hall.
“If Dad were here today, he would be proud, as well, but in a different way,” Jim France said. “He would be proud mostly for NASCAR. He would be proud of this hall of fame, a commitment made to honor our past and to recognize the individuals who are responsible for making NASCAR what it is today, for their great accomplishments.
“The NASCAR Hall of Fame in many ways is the ultimate tribute to my father, the hopes and dreams that he had for our sport.”
NASCAR Hall Of Fame Biography Specials on SPEED
SceneDaily.com • http://www.scenedaily.com/news/articles/sprintcupseries/Kevin Harvick signs contract extension to remain with Richard Childress Racing
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