Jim Hunter has the quote given to him by Bill France framed and hanging on the wall of his office in Daytona Beach, Fla.

The quote, attributed to 1950s vice presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson, is this:

“

'Big Bill' was NASCAR. It was his dream to organize the other groups and give the sport credibility.

”

-- BUZ MCKIM

On the plains of hesitation lie the bleached bones of millions, who when within the grasp of victory, sat and waited, and waiting died.

Hunter, the vice president of corporate communications for NASCAR, says that the verse's words say something about what France believed.

"He strongly believed NASCAR could be a huge sport someday if it was managed right, and he was right," Hunter said. "He helped steer it in a solid direction. France was a giant of a man, but had a great way with people. He could be charming or could be a hard-nosed businessman, whichever the situation called for. He believed in action ... didn't believe in sitting around waiting for something to happen."

There were those -- none other than Richard Petty included -- who felt France could very well have been the only person inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in its first year of existence.

"It would be an honor to go in with Bill France Sr. in the first class of inductees," Petty said early in 2009, before the inaugural group was named. "I wouldn't have a problem with him being the only man in the first class because there wouldn't be any of us without his vision for what he thought NASCAR could become."

Petty's comment brings to mind a relatively simple question. Where would NASCAR be today if it hadn't been for Bill France?

Surely, someone else would have stepped to the plate and come up with a plan for putting stock-car racing into the spotlight. Here's the problem with that logic, however. No one had done so before France, at least not successfully, and the challenges he faced after forming the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing were relatively minor.

"I've heard people say that," said Buz McKim, historian at the NASCAR Hall of Fame. "It may be so, but Bill France did put it together and he made it work. There were many other groups that were formed before and after the founding of NASCAR. But it, alone, rose head and shoulders above all the other and continues to thrive 62 years later, while the others have failed."

To challenge France as the mastermind behind the force that would one day become a multibillion-dollar enterprise is revisionist history, at best. Yes, France had plenty of help in keeping the sanctioning body on a steady course. In Driving With The Devil, the best account of racing's pre-NASCAR and moonshine-soaked roots, writer Neal Thompson described the up-and-coming promoter sometimes having to borrow money from men like Raymond Parks, who fielded NASCAR's first two championship-winning cars for driver Red Byron. (Continued)