France family built racing at Daytona
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The France family love affair with racing began when Bill France was a teen willing to skip school to catch events in suburban Washington, D.C. He taught himself mechanics, even tried racing a bit himself.
He was supposed to be a businessman, perhaps follow his father into banking. Instead, France opened a garage, got married and had a son, Bill Jr., then packed up his car in the early 1930s and headed South to escape the East Coast winters.
“My dad used to say he moved to Florida to get out of the weather in Washington; he always said, ‘I got tired of shoveling snow,’ ” Jim France, his youngest son, told The Associated Press. "He likes to say that the car broke down in Daytona. He was a mechanic. If it had broke down, he’d have fixed it and gone on down to Miami if that’s where he wanted to be.”
Nope, France had his sights set on Daytona Beach. It was the place to be. Still is.
In 1927, the “world famous Daytona Beach” hosted the world land speed record, 203.79 miles per hour, set by Major Henry Segrave in a Sunbeam Mystery.
This was paradise for a young France, who worked at a car dealership as a mechanic and eventually opened a service station on Main Street. He participated in racing as a promoter and grew his business and his family. With no racing during World War II, France went to work at the Daytona boatyards building submarine chasers.
When the war ended, racing resumed and France gathered the big players from the local racing scene at the Streamline Hotel in Daytona Beach for the pivotal Feb. 21, 1948, meeting that officially created the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, a series that grew into the most popular form of motorsports in the nation.
NASCAR now is celebrating its 75th anniversary, starting with Sunday’s season-opening Daytona 500, and France — a member of NASCAR’S first Hall of Fame class — is regarded as one of the most pivotal figures in domestic racing history long after his death in 1992.
It started small – summers were spent in Winston-salem, N.C., running events at Bowman- Gray Stadium, with France’s wife ensuring the books remained balanced and the racers got paid. It’s now an entire ecosystem that spans generations, and NASCAR is the only thing they’ve ever known.
Len Wood and his brother Eddie, sons of Hall of Famer Glenn Wood, now run The Wood Brothers Racing team, which entered its first race in 1953. Eddie spent nine months washing dishes at a hospital, but back to NASCAR he returned.
“We’re in our 73rd year, still with the France family, still getting goosebumps at the start of every race," Len Wood said. "It’s a complete life. We know nothing else.”
The Daytona offices are part of “One Daytona” a 390,000-square foot entertainment and restaurant space.
One Daytona sits across from the famous speedway, which the France family also built and then spent $400 million on a renovation completed in 2016..
“I tend to think, ‘No, the France family is not appreciated,’ but I think part of that is their style,” said Steve Phelps, just the third non-france family member to serve as NASCAR president in 75 years.
“They are not flashy. They are not headline grabbers. But if you look at the history of what they have done for Daytona Beach, and what they have done for motorsports, they keep it moving. They doubled down on this sport in 2018 when they didn’t have to.”