I never met the man, but Bill France Jr. was a hero of mine just the same.

His father, “Big” Bill France, created the entity of NASCAR, but it was France Jr. who turned it into the sport we love to watch every Sunday and every NASCAR fan is in his debt.

To put it into the perspective of the electronic age, Big Bill created the computer, but Bill Jr. created Windows.

When he was handed the reigns to NASCAR after his father’s retirement in 1972, many doubted that France Jr. could take this small, regional sport and even maintain it, much less grow it. He had been perceived as a very weak shadow to his very strong father and there appeared to be some merit to that argument even a few years into his tenure as president of NASCAR.

In 1976, A.J. Foyt took the pole for the Daytona 500, but his time was disallowed when NASCAR officials said they’d found “sufficient evidence” of the use of nitrous oxide to boost Foyt’s engine’s horse power. Foyt, never known as a shy man, went on an angry, up close and personal tirade against France Jr., railing at France for the sanctioning body’s decision . This was huge – no one would have ever dared get in Big Bill’s face like Foyt was doing to France Jr.

A call was made to Big Bill and shortly, his car screeched to a halt near the infield garage area. Big Bill stormed into the garage and while there are no accounts as to what actually occurred in there, it was reported by Sports Illustrated that ten minutes later, Big Bill “emerged from behind closed doors with his arm around the neck of a suddenly compliant Foyt, who was saying. ‘Yessir…yessir…yessir.’”

However, in spite of maybe being a little nicer than his father in the beginning, France soon became respected and feared, just as his father had been, as a man who spoke his mind and who’s word was law. As stated in many of the testimonials we’ve seen about him, people always knew where they stood with Bill France Jr. and there was nearly universal admiration for him.

It was Bill France Jr. who worked out the now legendary series sponsorship agreement with R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company’s Winston brand. (Some who think they know the history of the sport will now pipe up and say, “NOPE! It was Junior Johnson who put that together!” They are wrong. Johnson was involved, but to a much smaller degree than often believed. Junior went to R.J. Reynolds looking for sponsorship for his car, but the tobacco giant, reeling from new government restrictions banning cigarette advertising on TV, explained that they were thinking on a much larger scale than sponsoring just a single car and that they had millions to spend. “I believe Mr Bill France Jr. could help you spend some of that money”, was Johnson’s reply and he got them in touch with France, but that was the extent of his involvement.)

It was under France Jr.’s leadership that Bob Latford created the points system we now see used in the sport, (although it has been modified a few times over the years). NASCAR was once known as being very inconsistent with the points system, tweaking and changing it from season to season and often making wholesale changes. France Jr., among others, recognized that for the sport to be taken seriously, they needed a solid points system that was fair to all competitors and it was Latford who layed out the basic blueprint for the current points system on a cocktail napkin.

It was under France Jr.’s leadership that NASCAR grew from a small, regional racing series into a multi-billion dollar empire with national (and somewhat global) appeal.

France Jr. recruited O. Bruton Smith, founder of Speedway Motorsports, Inc., to help him grow the sport across the country and Smith jumped at the opportunity. Separately, but with a common goal, the two built and/or acquired tracks across the country, expanding the fan base well beyond its beginnings in the Southeast portion of the country. Although they later wound up at odds with one another, France Jr. and Smith worked together to bring us what we now have.

It was under France Jr.’s leadership that the 1979 Daytona 500 became the first NASCAR race televised live, in its entirety, from coast to coast in the US, and it was most certainly divine intervention that led to the Northeast part of the country being snow bound that particular Sunday, leading to a massive television audience that France Jr. could never have imagined. Millions tuned in to watch, if only because there was nothing else to watch, but they saw an exciting race with the unforgettable ending of Cale Yarborough and Bobby Allison in a fist fight on the back stretch. A star – NASCAR – was born.

In the years to come, NASCAR events would be featured live more and more often, on several cable networks as well as CBS and ABC, until eventually, fans could see almost every race live on television and they could often watch qualifying and some practice sessions as well.

Having grown the sport the way he had, France Jr. had it in perfect position to explode nationally and that was evidenced when FOX and NBC/TNT inked contracts to be the exclusive broadcasters for NASCAR races beginning in 2001.

We can only imagine the bittersweet feelings France Jr. must have experienced on February 18, 2001. It was the Daytona 500, NASCAR’S biggest event, and FOX was televising it live and on a grand scale. A huge audience had tuned in to watch and it was a very exciting race to watch – the aero package NASCAR had in place at the time allowed for cars to pass more easily than usual at a restrictor plate track. France Jr. had to have been absolutely beside himself with glee to see how well things were going, to see how his dream of a nationally recognized sport had become reality, to see the teams put on a spectacular race, only to have it dissolve into sorrow as his good friend, and another who helped shape NASCAR, Dale Earnhardt, was killed on the last lap of the race. Like it or not, it was Dale’s death that brought even more new interest to the sport, but if not for France Jr.’s hard work over the previous 29 years, no one outside of the sport would have heard much about it.

Bill France Jr. took a tiny seed, an egg, and nurtured and grew it into what we now see when we tune in on Sunday and when we watch the amazing coverage we see on Speed Channel. In no other sport do fans have as much programming available to them as do NASCAR fans and in no other sport do fans have such ready access to the competitors as do NASCAR fans. One man’s vision was responsible for all of that.

I never met the man, but if I had, I would have shaken his hand and thanked him - his strong vision and hard work built the sport I call my passion.