Bill France Jr. (66) and Bill France (6) at Talladega Superspeedway in 1969 (photo from NACAR Media).
William "Big Bill" Henry Getty France had a dream. A dream to unify those sometimes rough and rowdy guys who were challenging others to challenges to find out who had the fastest car. This dream led France to Daytona Beach, Fla., and in 1948, NASCAR was born.
France first caught the racing bug by turning laps in the familly Ford Model T as a teenager at a board track in Maryland, that is without his parents knowledge.
When he got older he owned and operated his own service station in the Washington, D.C., area before packing up his family and relocating to Daytona in 1935.
France would then spend World War II working at the Daytona Boat Works while wife Anne ran the family-owned filling station that was opened after the family made the move to Daytona Beach.
After the war, France could turn his focus back to racing. Concerned that drivers were frequently cheated out of their winnings and feeling that racing needed to be sanctioned to protect both competitors and promoters, France met with a group of drivers, mechanics, and race car owners on Dec. 14, 1947, at the bar in the Streamline Hotel in Daytona. NASCAR would be born soon after -- Feb. 21, 1948.
"Bill France Sr. and Bill France Jr. (feature coming this weekend) had the vision and passion to build NASCAR from its humble beginnings in 1948 to the sport it is today," Darlington Raceway President Chris Browning said.
The dream didn't stop there. France was always dreaming, apparently by the motto "bigger is better." It was these visions that led to the construction of the two largest ovals in NASCAR racing, the 2.5 mile superspeedways of Daytona International Speedway, with the first Daytona 500 being held in 1959, and Talladega Superspeedway, which opened 10 years later in 1969.
“Without the actions and leadership of Bill France and Bill France, Jr. there would be no NASCAR, no Daytona and no Talladega," Talladega Superspeedway President Rick Humphrey said. "I can’t even imagine what the state of auto racing would be like were it not for them.
France, along with fellow NASCAR Hall of Fame nominee Junior Johnson, helped bring R.J. Reynolds to the sport, making it the title sponsor of NASCAR's top series -- the Winston Cup Series -- in 1970. It was soon after (1972) that NASCAR's modern era was born, and all dirt tracks and races shorter than 100 miles were dropped from the schedule.
France ran the sport, serving as its president until 1972, when he turned it over to his son in 1972. He may have stepped away from the president's role, but he didn't disappear from the sport. He continued to occupy an office at NASCAR's Daytona Beach administrative headquarters until the late 1980s.
France died June 7, 1992.
France was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame (which he created) in Talladega and the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1990. He was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2004. France is also a member of the National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame in Darlington, S.C., and the Daytona Beach Stock Car Racing Hall of Fame.
On Oct. 14, 2010, he became one of the first five inductees into the official Hall of Fame of the sport he was instrumental in creating -- the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
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