The France Revolution - former NASCAR president Bill France - Interview

Auto Racing Digest, May, 2001 by Larry Woody

The France family transformed NASCAR from a regional curiosity into a national obsession. Can new circuit president Mike Helton continue the staggering growth?

THE FRANCES WERE MEN OF common vision. In the 1940s, William G. "Big Bill" France looked at a raw-boned, untamed backwoods diversion called stock car racing and saw a promising future. In 1948 he founded the National Association of .Stock Car Automobile Racing and through sheer iron will hammered it into shape.

In 1972 the control of NASCAR was passed down to his son, Bill France Jr., who dared to gaze even further beyond the horizon than his father had done. Bill Jr. would turn what had been a modestly popular regional entertainment into the boom sport of the 1990s, surpassing every other professional sport in terms of fan growth, the rate at which TV ratings rose, and mega-marketing.

The Frances didn't just build NASCAR--they were NASCAR. Now, for the first time in the sport's history, NASCAR finds itself without a France at the helm. In late November, Bill Jr., 67 years old and wearied by a two-year battle with cancer, bequeathed the title of NASCAR president. New president Mike Helton, who worked his way to the top from the inside, so impressed France with his competence and commitment that he was hand-picked to-lead the sport in the new millennium.

"This is an interesting and sort of a spectacular day for NASCAR," France said during his Daytona Beach press conference to announce the change at the top. "From 1948 until now only two people have been NASCAR president. But we put the wheels for this in motion in February 1999, when we named Mike as the NASCAR chief operating officer. Needless to say, he's done an excellent job. We're formalizing what had already taken place."

Why the change at this particular time? "The sport has expanded," France says, noting Dodge's return to Winston Cup this year. "The competition has become more intense. This was prompted somewhat by wanting to give Mike some relief on the operating side. He is going to have one-third more competition problems on his hands with Dodge on the Winston Cup scene. I've traveled that route before, and it doesn't get easier--it gets harder."

France also cited the need for his own increased involvement in the family-controlled International Speedway Corp., which in recent years has more than doubled the number of tracks it owns and oversees. As for his health concerns, France says he is making progress and remains optimistic about a full recovery. But he admits the ravages of the battle has prompted him to reduce his work load.

Helton being robbed for the job was no surprise. The burly, affable Helton entered the sport on the bottom level in the late 1970s and steadily worked his way up. He began as an assistant at Bristol Speedway served stints in management at Atlanta and Talladega, and joined NASCAR in 1994 as vice president of competition. In recent years, he had served as senior vice president and CEO and was generally considered France's fight-hand man.

Helton's approach to his new NASCAR role is simple: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. "I think this sport is on a good track and I just don't want to do anything to screw it up," he says. "It's not like anything is broken. It's not like there's a new ownership package or anything like that. I don't have any great agenda to change anything, because it works pretty well the way it is."

Make no mistake: The France family stamp will remain on NASCAR. Bill Jr. will serve as chairman of a new five-member board of directors, on which Helton is also a member. The other board members are France's brother Jim, his son Brian, and daughter Lesa France Kennedy, who serves as executive vice president of ISC.

France says of the new board: "It really formalizes what has been going on around here for a couple of years. Used to be that a `board meeting' was when 41 would stop and talk with Jim in the hallway. This just makes it a more formal process."

Jim France will continue to serve as executive vice president and secretary; Brian France will hold the title of senior vice president and executive vice president. George Pyne, who had directed NASCAR's marketing and licensing program, assumes new duties as senior vice president, the title formerly held by Helton. Pyne will have day-to-day operational control, under the direction of Helton.

Not to be lost or confused in the maze of shifting titles is the central issue: Will NASCAR without a France at the top still be NASCAR?

Few, if any, men could have tamed the wild and wooly sport the way Big Bill did in his reckless youth. Likewise, no president or commissioner of any other pro sports league has been so successful as Bill Jr. in terms of marketing their product. Although Bill Jr. may have taken a more diplomatic approach than his father, most understood that inside his velvet glove was a fist of steel. His word was law, his decisions final.

Jim Hunter, president of Darlington Speedway and a longtime NASCAR insider, recalls many "spirited debates" with his old Mend.