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.

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."

About the Hall

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