The France connection: NASCAR president Mike Helton is among the most powerful figures in sports—and the pivotal link between stock car racing's founding family and its future. He also must deal with rising expectations from fans and sponsors. Follow him around, though, and you'll see `a pretty average guy.'

Sporting News, The, May 13, 2002 by Mark McCarter

Pulling alongside a motorcyle cop, Mike Helton says, "Wanna race?"

The cop does a double take, one of those exaggerated looks from a bad sitcom. He looks at Helton, then at his vehicle, which is hardly the stuff of racin.'

"What is that?" he exclaims. "An oversized golf cart?"

It is, in fact, a Humdinger, a six-passenger vehicle that looks to be the offspring of some shotgun marriage between a golf cart and a Humvee. It is broad and sparkling white and eerily quiet. It has the macho face and build of a Humvee, just shrunk in half. It has a CD player and leather seats as soft as a baby's bottom.

As it navigates the grounds of Talladega Superspeedway on this sun-splashed afternoon--the cop serving as escort--it catches hundreds of eyes. "Way cool!" "What that?" "Look at that little Humvee."

Occasionally a fan shouts to Helton, "You're doing a great job!" as the Humdinger weaves through the crowd. Or you can hear a voice fading away in the cart's wake, "Hey, wasn't that ...?"

But, for the most art, scant notice is paid to the bearish man behind the wheel, even if he has become one of the most powerful men in the sports world.

The sits just fine with Mike Helton, president of NASCAR. Let the machinery, not the man, receive the attention. He is, he admits, a private person in a public job.

"I think most people are," he says. "I don't think I'm my different from the next guy. I'm not a talented racecar driver. I'm not good at golf. I'm not a rocket scientist. I'm never going to be a Rhodes scholar. I'm just really a pretty average guy who happens to be in a very great opportunity."

Helton, 48, was named chief operating officer of NASCAR in February 1999. He became NASCAR's president on November 2000, only the third man to hold that post. The other two: Bill France Sr. and Bill France Jr.

Considering that other members of the France family are so active in the sport, isn't it as if Vito Corleone had named Tom Hagen to run the family instead of Sonny and Michael in The Godfather?

Laughing diplomatically, Helton says, "I don't know how to answer that."

The promotion brought with it the responsibility of overseeing both the corporate and competitive sides of NASCAR. The racing is high-profile and lucrative--Winston Cup is only one of 12 series competing under the NASCAR banner--but the marketing side now has become an essential part of the business. Licensing of souvenirs and apparel, television rights, publishing and myriad other ventures are part of his concern, though the primary responsibility is delegated elsewhere.

Compared with commissioners in other pro sports who are hired by--then must kowtow to--team owners, Helton has considerably more power in regard to competition. He is ultimately the man calling shots regarding rule changes, expansion, competitive balance, punishments and, frequently, the conduct of individual races. That's where he is most visible--and most vulnerable to his critics.

The France Empties I and II often were called "benevolent dictatorships." Bill Jr. especially embraced that description.

Despite his battle with cancer, Bill Jr. maintains a powerfully active role in the sport as chairman of the board of NASCAR. Also sitting on the board are his brother Jim, son Brian, daughter Lesa and Helton. Bill Jr. and Helton are in contact "daily, if not hourly," Helton says. "He doesn't have to be present to still be the driving force."

In fact, moments after Helton parks his Humdinger behind the stands at the Talladega start-finish line and ascends to the control tower with its panoramic view of the speedway and the Crayola blur of cars passing underneath, a telephone rings. It is for Helton. It is Bill France Jr., calling as the last pace lap of a Busch Grand National race is beginning.

They discuss the weather and the crowd. It is clear it is a "catch-me-up" call from France, not a "do-this-and-do-that" call.

"I think (Helton) has done a very good job," driver-turned-broadcaster Benny Parsons says. "He's got an awfully hard job, and maybe the worst thing about his job is that every decision he makes, he has four or five Frances looking over his shoulder. And that's got to be really, really tough."

Or ... it doesn't.

"I think that's a good thing," Helton says, "because that family is the core of what we do, and they have been since its existence. I don't have a problem with them looking over my shoulder.

"There's nobody in any sport alive today that has the comprehension of his business like Bill does with this sport and all the elements in it. It's like having a Library of Congress sitting next to you."

Kevin Triplett is managing director for business operations for NASCAR. "Mr. France is different enough from his father, and Mike is different enough from Mr. France for there to be unique stamps on things from all three, but also enough of a similarity to where the philosophy of the company doesn't change," Triplett says.

Triplett points out Helton's advantage in dealing with the sport's toughest audience--the owners and competitors--by saying, "He's not new to the garage area. He's run two different racetracks and worked at a third. He's worked as vice president of competition. It's not like he came in from the soda stand down the street."