Being Mike Helton: the NASCAR president has a difficult job, but he's not shying from his responsibilities

Auto Racing Digest, August-Sept, 2003 by Ken Willis

THE PICTURE AND ITS CAPTION are good for a chuckle--even around NASCAR's Daytona Beach offices. The photo is right there on page 7 of the Winston Cup media guide under a headline that reads: "The France Family." It features the four France tinnily members who are players in the racing business: Bill Jr., his brother, Jim, and Bill's two kids, Lesa Kennedy and Brian ... along with Mike Helton.

Did we miss the press release announcing Helton's adoption into the France clan? Well, not exactly. "I haven't seen any papers come across my desk that say I'm in the family," jokes Helton.

But Helton is about as close to being a member of the France family as any outsider could get. Helton was, after all, the first non-France to run NASCAR's day-to-day business, taking the reins in 1999 when he was named senior vice president and chief operating officer.

The title took on a loftier ring the following year when he became NASCAR's president, replacing Bill France Jr., who now chairs a five-member board of directors that also includes Helton.

With France's International Speedway Corporation and then the stock car series itself, Helton steadily climbed the ladder. But it still caught many observers by surprise when he became the first non-France to be named NASCAR president. There was no warning. One day, France called Helton and said: "Here's what we're gonna do and when we're gonna do it."

"I guess it all happened a bit quicker than I thought it would," Helton said at the lime. "When the reality sets in, then it becomes a bit overwhelming."

Helton didn't know it at the time, but the truly overwhelming aspects of the job were still to come. They started with the signing of the new network television contract in late 1999, which vaulted the already rapidly growing sport into an entirely new orbit. When that TV deal kicked off in 2001, it was met by Dale Earnhardt's tragic death on the final lap of the Daytona 500. The fallout from Earnhardt's death was enormous, and in NASCAR's ongoing safety efforts, it's still felt.

Helton also has to deal with the ongoing controversy involving Winston Cup scheduling, as well as the typical daily battles involving rules packages, sponsorship deals, and personnel matters.

Although the parameters have changed, the No. 1 job description for Helton remains the same: management. "I think the biggest challenge today--and it's gonna be this way for some time--is managing the growth of the sport and not letting that overwhelm us," says Helton. "That's why we got to where we are. We have a lot of good components right now ... we have all the ingredients of a great recipe. We just have to manage it right and keep the show attractive and appealing."

Over the past year, Helton has been able to direct much of his energy toward NASCAR's core product: on-track competition. Most observers believe that elevating George Pyne through the organization to his current post as chief operating officer--Helton's former title--has freed the NASCAR president from much of the daily grind of running a billion-dollar business. "That seems fair," Helton says of the assumption. "Competition is the heart and soul of what we do, and it's where I spent most of my career and where I feel most comfortable. George has done a great job with the business side of what we do.

"But I still look forward to going to the racetrack on the weekend. I think part of the reason I'm in this position is my background in competition."

Helton's background actually includes a variety of chores. He's a native of Bristol, Va., which means, of course, he can also claim Bristol, Tenn., as a hometown--you can stand in the middle of State Street with one foot in Tennessee and one in Virginia.

After graduating from Battle High School, where he was senior class president, Helton stayed home and went to King College (Tenn.). With an aptitude for numbers, he majored in accounting and earned a minor in math. After college, he took a job as an accountant and--to supplement his income--moonlighted as a basketball and football referee.

One of Helton's officiating partners owned a small local AM radio station. Tiring of W2 forms and ledger sheets, Helton quit the accounting trade to become the radio station's sports director. As sports director in the mid-1970s, his favorite assignments involved the many NASCAR events around the Southeast. Without knowing how talented Helton was behind a microphone, you have to assume he was a decent networker, because by 1980 he'd parlayed his radio gig into a job as public relations director at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Helton stayed with the Atlanta track until 1986, when he began his relationship with the France family. Bill France Jr. hired him as director of marketing for Daytona International Speedway. Helton didn't last long in that job--he was soon promoted to general manager, and later president, of Talladega Superspeedway.

Helton left the track-operation side of racing for the sanctioning body in 1994 when he was tapped to replace the "coach," Les Richter, as NASCAR's director of competition. Richter is a former NFL lineman who can stretch the threads of a business suit. Helton is even bigger. He has joked through the years that his size may have been what earned him that promotion. "They had all the weights and balances on the airplane set to work for coach," he says. "They didn't want to screw those up by putting a little guy in his seat."