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Sprint Cup
Hall Of Fame Profile: Bill France Jr., Part 1 Of 5
Bill France Jr., son of NASCAR founder William Henry Getty France, led NASCAR into the modern era, expanded its horizons both literally and figuratively...
William (Bill) Clifton France is remembered -- and revered -- as the man who followed his visionary father at NASCAR's helm. (Photo: France Family)
The NASCAR Hall of Fame will induct the five members of its inaugural class May 23. Leading up to the hall’s induction ceremony, SPEEDtv.com is profiling the first five racing legends chosen for this unique honor.
Bill France Jr. knew stuff. He knew stuff about almost everything, from concrete to traffic to transmissions, from airplanes to municipal bonds to toilet capacity.
And what he didn’t know he studied.
“I was in his office one day,” remembered long-time France family lieutenant Jim Hunter, “and I noticed a book on his desk about how to make an atomic bomb. I pointed at it and said, ‘Is there something I ought to know?’ He said, ‘No, I was just a little curious.’
“If he had had time, he probably would have learned how to do it. He was really a street-smart guy.”
France, son of NASCAR founder William Henry Getty France, led NASCAR into the modern era, expanded its horizons both literally and figuratively, addressed difficult challenges in the areas of safety and scheduling and, in the process, became probably the most important executive in the history of American motorsports.
He grew up in the long shadow of his father, Big Bill, learning the ins and outs of managing a major motorsports organization from the man who made the mold. “He couldn’t have had a better teacher,” said former NASCAR team owner Bud Moore, who had close relationships with both Frances.
France Jr., who died in June 2007 at the age of 74, will be one of five members of the inaugural NASCAR Hall of Fame class. He was president of NASCAR from 1972 to 2000 and continued to lead the France family’s speedway operations group, International Speedway Corp., after his retirement from NASCAR. He battled serious health issues, including cancer, over the final years of his life but remained significantly involved in the sport and its operations virtually until the final weeks. Perhaps fittingly, the Sprint Cup Series was racing at Dover, Del., on the day he died.
When France Sr., who had organized NASCAR in 1948 and built it into a profitable, respected enterprise, handed the keys to his elder son in 1972, the sport was on the verge of big changes. The R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., through its cigarette brand Winston, joined NASCAR as spotlighted sponsor of its major series, sparking dramatic shifts in scheduling, finances and perspective.
France Jr., who had been performing many of the functions of NASCAR president even in the months before he was officially named to the job, was at the center of all of it. He worked with drivers, team owners, race promoters, track bosses, business executives and television network leaders to expand the sport far beyond the dreams of his father.
The two men were similar in appearance and ambition, but people who worked with and for them note differences in father and son.
“Bill Jr. was more strictly business,” said NASCAR historian Buz McKim.
“Bill Jr. was a diplomat. Bill Sr. was gregarious, a backslapper. He would have been a tremendous politician. Junior didn’t have those social skills. He didn’t mingle well. It was strictly about the business. Senior was almost an entertainer. For Junior, that wasn’t his thing.”
NASCAR president Mike Helton said father and son were “different guys for different times, and it worked very well.”
Although France Jr. grew up around the sport and, in sort of “on-the-job training” worked in virtually every part of the business under his father and other NASCAR executives, there were doubters when he succeeded Bill Sr. in 1972. “Big Bill” was a force of nature, a strong personality who made a rough-and-tumble sport work for virtually all involved factions. There were doubts that anyone could follow him with the same force and style – and success.
France Jr. had started the educational process early. While still in school at Seabreeze High in Daytona Beach, he worked at motorcycle races on the old beach-road course.
“We would go down there and run the hot dog stands,” remembered Joe Bockoven, a high school classmate of France’s. “Then he would go to the Carolinas during the summer and help his father. He’d put bumper strips (advertising races) around telephone poles. He worked hard. He had the perfect attitude for this kind of business.”
On June 19, 1949, at the first Strictly Stock (now Sprint Cup) race in Charlotte, N.C., his father gave the 16-year-old Billy France the somewhat risky assignment of preventing people from watching the race for free by peering over the fence.
“My job was to pull people off the fence who were trying to sneak in or see over,” he remembered. “It was a solid wooden fence 7 or 8 feet high. I’d go up and grab them around the knees and pull them down. Then I’d go about 10 feet and pull another guy down. They’d start to take a swing at me, and I’d run.”
At the first Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway in 1950, he sold snow cones. On a brutally hot day at the old Occoneechee Speedway in Hillsborough, N.C., he sold “all the water you can drink” for 15 cents.
In the late 1950s, helping his father build the staggeringly huge – particularly for its time – Daytona International Speedway, France Jr.
drove graders and tractors and, for a brief time, wrestled with a mule during land-clearing work on the property, which was basically a swamp.
“I didn’t do that good with the mule,” France once said.
TUESDAY: A New Leader
Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com and has been covering motorsports for 28 years. He has written several books on NASCAR, including "NASCAR: The Definitive History of America's Sport" and "Then Tony Said To Junior: The Best NASCAR Stories Ever Told". He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
The NASCAR Hall of Fame Grand Opening is set for May 11, 2010. Outdoor Opening Ceremonies are May 11th from 9 to 10 am ET free of charge, open to the public. Outdoor festivities including driver appearances and concerts May 11th from 10 am until 8 pm ET open to the public, free of charge. Tickets to enter the NASCAR Hall of Fame are on sale now at www.NASCARHall.com or by calling 877-231-2010. The countdown to the NASCAR Hall of Fame is on! Visit www.NASCARHall.com/50days for daily updates about the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
Bill France Jr. knew stuff. He knew stuff about almost everything, from concrete to traffic to transmissions, from airplanes to municipal bonds to toilet capacity.
And what he didn’t know he studied.
“I was in his office one day,” remembered long-time France family lieutenant Jim Hunter, “and I noticed a book on his desk about how to make an atomic bomb. I pointed at it and said, ‘Is there something I ought to know?’ He said, ‘No, I was just a little curious.’
“If he had had time, he probably would have learned how to do it. He was really a street-smart guy.”
France, son of NASCAR founder William Henry Getty France, led NASCAR into the modern era, expanded its horizons both literally and figuratively, addressed difficult challenges in the areas of safety and scheduling and, in the process, became probably the most important executive in the history of American motorsports.
He grew up in the long shadow of his father, Big Bill, learning the ins and outs of managing a major motorsports organization from the man who made the mold. “He couldn’t have had a better teacher,” said former NASCAR team owner Bud Moore, who had close relationships with both Frances.
France Jr., who died in June 2007 at the age of 74, will be one of five members of the inaugural NASCAR Hall of Fame class. He was president of NASCAR from 1972 to 2000 and continued to lead the France family’s speedway operations group, International Speedway Corp., after his retirement from NASCAR. He battled serious health issues, including cancer, over the final years of his life but remained significantly involved in the sport and its operations virtually until the final weeks. Perhaps fittingly, the Sprint Cup Series was racing at Dover, Del., on the day he died.
When France Sr., who had organized NASCAR in 1948 and built it into a profitable, respected enterprise, handed the keys to his elder son in 1972, the sport was on the verge of big changes. The R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., through its cigarette brand Winston, joined NASCAR as spotlighted sponsor of its major series, sparking dramatic shifts in scheduling, finances and perspective.
France Jr., who had been performing many of the functions of NASCAR president even in the months before he was officially named to the job, was at the center of all of it. He worked with drivers, team owners, race promoters, track bosses, business executives and television network leaders to expand the sport far beyond the dreams of his father.
The two men were similar in appearance and ambition, but people who worked with and for them note differences in father and son.
“Bill Jr. was more strictly business,” said NASCAR historian Buz McKim.
“Bill Jr. was a diplomat. Bill Sr. was gregarious, a backslapper. He would have been a tremendous politician. Junior didn’t have those social skills. He didn’t mingle well. It was strictly about the business. Senior was almost an entertainer. For Junior, that wasn’t his thing.”
NASCAR president Mike Helton said father and son were “different guys for different times, and it worked very well.”
Although France Jr. grew up around the sport and, in sort of “on-the-job training” worked in virtually every part of the business under his father and other NASCAR executives, there were doubters when he succeeded Bill Sr. in 1972. “Big Bill” was a force of nature, a strong personality who made a rough-and-tumble sport work for virtually all involved factions. There were doubts that anyone could follow him with the same force and style – and success.
France Jr. had started the educational process early. While still in school at Seabreeze High in Daytona Beach, he worked at motorcycle races on the old beach-road course.
“We would go down there and run the hot dog stands,” remembered Joe Bockoven, a high school classmate of France’s. “Then he would go to the Carolinas during the summer and help his father. He’d put bumper strips (advertising races) around telephone poles. He worked hard. He had the perfect attitude for this kind of business.”
On June 19, 1949, at the first Strictly Stock (now Sprint Cup) race in Charlotte, N.C., his father gave the 16-year-old Billy France the somewhat risky assignment of preventing people from watching the race for free by peering over the fence.
“My job was to pull people off the fence who were trying to sneak in or see over,” he remembered. “It was a solid wooden fence 7 or 8 feet high. I’d go up and grab them around the knees and pull them down. Then I’d go about 10 feet and pull another guy down. They’d start to take a swing at me, and I’d run.”
At the first Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway in 1950, he sold snow cones. On a brutally hot day at the old Occoneechee Speedway in Hillsborough, N.C., he sold “all the water you can drink” for 15 cents.
In the late 1950s, helping his father build the staggeringly huge – particularly for its time – Daytona International Speedway, France Jr.
drove graders and tractors and, for a brief time, wrestled with a mule during land-clearing work on the property, which was basically a swamp.
“I didn’t do that good with the mule,” France once said.
TUESDAY: A New Leader
Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com and has been covering motorsports for 28 years. He has written several books on NASCAR, including "NASCAR: The Definitive History of America's Sport" and "Then Tony Said To Junior: The Best NASCAR Stories Ever Told". He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
The NASCAR Hall of Fame Grand Opening is set for May 11, 2010. Outdoor Opening Ceremonies are May 11th from 9 to 10 am ET free of charge, open to the public. Outdoor festivities including driver appearances and concerts May 11th from 10 am until 8 pm ET open to the public, free of charge. Tickets to enter the NASCAR Hall of Fame are on sale now at www.NASCARHall.com or by calling 877-231-2010. The countdown to the NASCAR Hall of Fame is on! Visit www.NASCARHall.com/50days for daily updates about the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
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