Racing Legend Dies After Long Illness
Former NASCAR President Oversaw Sport's Rampant Rise in Popularity

By Liz Clarke
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 5, 2007

DOVER, Del., June 4 -- Bill France Jr., whose firm hand and bold vision transformed the regional sport of stock-car racing into the major league marketing juggernaut known as NASCAR, died Monday at his home in Daytona Beach, Fla. He was 74.

France, who was born in Washington, had cancer diagnosed in 1999 and stepped down as NASCAR's president in 2000. He had been in poor health since then yet still wielded enormous influence over the sport, which, despite its bureaucratic acronym (short for the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) is a closely held and highly lucrative family business.

France's death was announced during the Fox network's broadcast of NASCAR's rain-delayed Nextel Cup race at Dover International Speedway. While everyone in stock-car racing was well aware of his frailty, news of the passing of the sport's most formidable figure elicited a somber response -- whether from young racers who knew him only by reputation, former champions who tangled with him over his iron-fisted management style, or titans of industry who tied their corporations' fortunes to his.

"Bill France Jr. was more than a good friend of mine," said Edsel B. Ford II, a director of Ford Motor Co., in a statement. "He was a legend in motor racing. NASCAR and motor racing worldwide would not have seen the growth and prosperity it has without Bill's vision and determination. He single-handedly made it the reality it is today by understanding what the fans wanted and by creating an environment where on-track competition was king."

Said legendary racer Junior Johnson, 75, reached at his home in Yadkin County, N.C.: "Me and him fought tooth and nail, but he was the kind of person that you had a lot of respect for even if you lost the argument. Bill was a great leader, and he had a great foresight of how far the sport could go, and he took it to where everybody was on their knees over how far he got it before he got sick."

France was not quite 2 when his parents moved from Washington to Daytona Beach, Fla., where his father, William H.G. France, opened a gas station and tried his hand at stock-car racing before channeling his energy into promoting races. At a towering 6 feet 5, "Big Bill" France took the initiative of organizing the sport's rival promoters and sanctioning bodies, who were often working at cross-purposes, and created the corporation known as NASCAR. In short order, he controlled 100 percent of its stock.

France's two sons, Bill and Jim, were reared in a humble, hard-working home. And there wasn't a job related to running races that they didn't do in their childhood and adolescence, whether selling programs, parking spectators' cars or driving the water trucks over the dirt tracks to keep the dust from swirling during the big shows. But few racers paid attention to the young France boys. The racers were too busy staying in the good graces of "Big Bill," who not only wrote the sport's rulebook but also policed it and punished the wayward.

Bill France Jr. may have been a familiar face, but he was an unknown commodity when he took NASCAR's reins in January 1972. While he lacked his father's imposing stature, he quickly established himself as a worthy successor, endowed with his father's sure hand and an even more ambitious agenda for the family trade.

"It's very unusual for a major icon in sports history to be followed by a son who is almost an equal character, but he and his father were," said former motor sports journalist Max Muhleman, who covered both generations of Frances before launching Charlotte-based Muhleman Marketing. "His dad had a vision that seemed almost preposterous at the time. And Bill Jr. got that vision moving at a time when fistfights were more common than not. It required a guy that was one part white-lightning and one part Madison Avenue."

Once in charge, France pared NASCAR's schedule from 48 to 31 races, gradually moving the sport off the few remaining dirt tracks and onto asphalt speedways in hopes of attracting a more upscale clientele.

After cigarette manufacturers were barred from advertising on television, he teamed with R.J. Reynolds to sell NASCAR and the Winston brand as a package, giving rise to the most successful sport's marketing alliance in history: the NASCAR Winston Cup series.

He brokered the first flag-to-flag network coverage of the Daytona 500 in 1979, which produced a breathtaking finish, an infield brawl and record ratings.

He kept Detroit automakers involved in the sport despite a fluctuating economy, tweaking his rulebook, if need be, to ensure that each brand basked in Victory Lane from time to time. He kept NASCAR on course despite the energy crisis of the 1970s. Desperate to raise stock-car racing's profile, he moved its annual awards banquet to New York's Waldorf-Astoria and courted coverage by major media. He cultivated politicians, as well, donating to candidates from both parties. And he kept a wild bunch of drivers and rulebook-flouting mechanics in line.

"He had supreme power all the way till the day he got sick," said 1983 champion Bobby Allison. Reached at his Mooresville, N.C., home, Allison recalled France slapping a spoiler on the super-fast 1981 Pontiac Le Mans he brought to one race to keep it from routing the field.

"We didn't have any choice as far as doing anything but saying, 'Yes sir' and get back in line. And, 'Where would you like me in line, sir?' " Allison recalled. "But that was okay because I think everybody, but especially me, respected him so much and respected what he had done. If somebody tried to do something innovative, and it wasn't something that he was particularly fond of at the moment, you got told, 'No!' "

There wasn't an aspect of big league stock-car racing that France didn't control, whether through his presidency of the NASCAR, which licensed competitors, determined which tracks hosted events and brokered TV contracts, or through his stake in the family's track-owning arm, International Speedway Corp.

While NASCAR's attendance and TV ratings have leveled off in the last year, it remains second only to the NFL in terms of its viewership among American sports fans. The most recent issue of Forbes magazine estimated the net worth of Bill France and brother James C. France, NASCAR's vice chairman and executive vice president, at $1.5 billion each.

Said 1989 champion Rusty Wallace: "NASCAR got as far as it did because he would make a decision and go with it, right or wrong. He was a real strong individual who put the fear of God in people, and that attitude just made NASCAR rocket forward."

France is survived by his wife, Betty Jane; his daughter, Lesa France Kennedy, president of International Speedway Corp.; and his son, Brian Z. France, who took over as NASCAR's chairman and chief executive in 2003.