Visionary France nurtured NASCAR with his actions (cont'd)

For all the assistance he received, it was always France's tall and imposing stature that led the way.

" 'Big Bill' was NASCAR," McKim said. "It was his dream to organize the other groups and give the sport credibility. Not only did he have a great business mind, but his 6-foot-5 stature and his amazing people skills gave him the leadership qualities to keep the group together and dissuade any loose egos among the other organizers."

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The NASCAR Hall of Fame's first class -- Dale Earnhardt, Bill France, Bill France Jr., Junior Johnson and Richard Petty -- will be enshrined on May 23.

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From Day One, quite literally, France's word was law. Results of the first race in the history of what we now know as the Sprint Cup Series were taken to court, but France won. He kept the Teamsters out of NASCAR. Although the sport's top stars boycotted the first race at Talladega Superspeedway, France never blinked. (Read more)

When France died in 1992, Bobby Allison -- who was certainly no stranger to going toe-to-toe with NASCAR -- called him a "benevolent dictator." It was a good way of summing up the career of the man, who despite his hard-nosed reputation was also known to help out of his own pocket struggling independents like NASCAR pioneer Wendell Scott.

Robin Braig, president of Daytona International Speedway, once had a picture of France enlarged to poster size, framed and sent to every track head in the International Speedway Corp. family.

"It was a picture of Bill France in 1971 standing out in the road at Talladega selling tickets to the motorcycle race," McKim said. "It's amazing. He had a change apron on, and he's out there selling tickets."

The sentiment behind the photograph was crystal clear. To operate a first-class, major-league caliber facility, Braig was telling his peers that they couldn't consider themselves too important to take on any job, no matter how big or how trivial it might have seemed.

Bill France surely didn't.

Related:
• Bill France bio | Video highlights
• Father, son provided foresight to change history