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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The NASCAR Hall of Fame voting committee awarded International Speedway Corporation Chairman Jim France with the Landmark Award for Outstanding Contributions to NASCAR.
The 72-year-old member of the sport’s founding family has served on the ISC Board since 1970 in positions ranging from secretary to executive vice president to now, chairman.
He led the recently completed $400 million Daytona Rising project that transformed the sport’s historic Daytona International Speedway into the world’s first motorsports stadium.
“Jim deserves this honor as the epitome of what the Landmark Award represents,” ISC CEO Lesa France Kennedy said in a statement. “His unassuming yet steady, decisive leadership has been a significant contributor to the growth of the sport through the years. He has left a lasting mark on NASCAR’s legacy. For someone who never seeks the spotlight, I am so pleased to see it shined on him today.”
Jim France founded GRAND-AM Road Racing series in 1999; in 2012, he was the driving force behind the merger of GRAND-AM and the American Le Mans Series, creating the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA).
The youngest son of NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., Jim France started working for ISC in 1959 as a teenager.