RACING NEWSNASCAR's Bill France Jr. Dies at 74 DAYTONA BEACH, FL (June 4, 2007) - His father may have been the architect of NASCAR, but throughout his life, Bill France Jr. proved to be the ultimate builder and general manager. On June 4, France Jr., chairman of the board of directors for International Speedway Corp., passed away at home following a long battle with cancer. France Jr. was diagnosed with cancer in 1999, and in 2003, he handed off day-to-day duties of running NASCAR to his son, Brian, even though his cancer was in remission. Under his three decades of leadership, France Jr.'s ability to transform his father's original vision into something greater than the sum of its parts was his greatest accomplishment. NASCAR evolved from a regional sport to one with a worldwide fan base. In addition, he was a trailblazer in the field of corporate sponsorships and the guiding force behind a television contract worth billions of dollars.
"In life you've got rules you have to live by, and you have to have people to enforce those
rules. If you don't have rules, you have chaos. Basically we are the government in the little country of
motorsports."
- Bill France Jr.Born in Washington, DC in 1933, France Jr. was raised in Daytona Beach, FL, where he was immersed in the sport of auto racing. After attending the University of Florida and a two-year stint in the U.S. Navy, he returned to make racing promotion his full-time occupation ad completing his father's dream of building a superspeedway in the swampland west of Daytona Beach. "We went seven days a week for 13 months to build the speedway," France Jr. recalled. He had an uncanny ability to recognize potential growth and take advantage of those opportunities. While in the service, he developed a relationship with Californian Bob Barkheimer, a move which strengthened NASCAR's ties to the West Coast. He also loved motorcycles and competed in the Baja 1000, which led to the addition of a motorcross race at Daytona International Speedway - the Daytona Supercross, one of the most attended events at the track and correlated with the growth of Daytona's Bike Week. Still, France Jr. never lost sight of what made NASCAR popular in the first place: the mass appeal of its drivers. "If you go back and look and think about it, NASCAR started off in 1948 with a group of racecar drivers who were in their 20s and 30s and started racing," France Jr. said. "They all came up together, and then they went out together." His key accomplishments included negotiating a deal with R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. to sponsor NASCAR's top-tier series and then convincing television partners to expose his product to potential fans. Following successful ratings for flag-to-flag coverage of the Daytona 500 by CBS in 1979, France Jr. was able to leverage the broadcast rights to the point where he negotiated a $2.4 billion contact with FOX, NBC and Turner Sports for the 2001 season. NASCAR has never looked back since.(Source: NASCAR)
- Bill France Jr.Born in Washington, DC in 1933, France Jr. was raised in Daytona Beach, FL, where he was immersed in the sport of auto racing. After attending the University of Florida and a two-year stint in the U.S. Navy, he returned to make racing promotion his full-time occupation ad completing his father's dream of building a superspeedway in the swampland west of Daytona Beach. "We went seven days a week for 13 months to build the speedway," France Jr. recalled. He had an uncanny ability to recognize potential growth and take advantage of those opportunities. While in the service, he developed a relationship with Californian Bob Barkheimer, a move which strengthened NASCAR's ties to the West Coast. He also loved motorcycles and competed in the Baja 1000, which led to the addition of a motorcross race at Daytona International Speedway - the Daytona Supercross, one of the most attended events at the track and correlated with the growth of Daytona's Bike Week. Still, France Jr. never lost sight of what made NASCAR popular in the first place: the mass appeal of its drivers. "If you go back and look and think about it, NASCAR started off in 1948 with a group of racecar drivers who were in their 20s and 30s and started racing," France Jr. said. "They all came up together, and then they went out together." His key accomplishments included negotiating a deal with R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. to sponsor NASCAR's top-tier series and then convincing television partners to expose his product to potential fans. Following successful ratings for flag-to-flag coverage of the Daytona 500 by CBS in 1979, France Jr. was able to leverage the broadcast rights to the point where he negotiated a $2.4 billion contact with FOX, NBC and Turner Sports for the 2001 season. NASCAR has never looked back since.(Source: NASCAR)
