[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 90 (Wednesday, June 6, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S7168]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                TRIBUTE TO WILLIAM ``BILL'' FRANCE, JR.

  Mr. MARTINEZ. Mr. President, I wish to speak today to pay tribute to 
a great Floridian, Bill France, Jr.--a man who lived the American 
dream, a man who literally turned an idea and hard work into a 
multibillion dollar national exhibition we today know as NASCAR.
  Bill France was a great Floridian in many other ways as well. He was 
someone who contributed greatly to his local community of Daytona 
Beach, FL, as well as to the State of Florida at large. Mr. France left 
us at his home in Daytona Beach, when he passed away earlier this week 
after a long and difficult battle with cancer.
  What we in Florida know, and what the news reports confirmed 
immediately following his death, is that Bill made NASCAR everything it 
is today: The sold-out races, the national network television coverage, 
the regalia and the memorabilia--it all can be credited to this man and 
his love of the sport.
  Born right here in the Nation's capital, Bill France moved as a young 
man with his family, Bill France, Sr., and his mother Anne to Daytona 
Beach, FL, in 1935 to escape the Great Depression. With $100 in his 
pocket, Bill, Sr., started a new life for his family in Florida, 
setting up an auto repair shop and quickly taking a great interest in 
racing. In 1938, he would set up the Daytona Beach Road Course, and 
from there, as they say, the rest is history.
  This course he set up back in those days was so unique, and to see 
photographs of it is one of those things that one can only harken back 
to the old Florida that is no more. But the races were essentially 
conducted on the strip of sand in Daytona Beach. They would circle 
around A1A, the strip of highway that was there at the time, and then 
circle back around on to the beach. The spectators would sit there on 
the beach side and watch these cars as they raced literally on the 
beach.
  Bill, Jr., spent his young life around the racetrack and worked 
toward the legacy his father had begun to build. He worked on cars, 
helped out during races, and beginning in 1956, he worked every day of 
the week for more than a year on the construction of the Daytona 
International Speedway.
  In 1972, Bill, Jr., took the reins of the racing organization that 
his father had helped to found in 1948 and took the risks and made the 
decisions that took NASCAR to a whole new level.
  The International Motorsports Hall of Fame describes it this way:

       Other than the founding of NASCAR itself, Bill, Jr.'s 
     appointment to leadership is probably the most significant 
     event in the history of the sanctioning body. As rule-maker, 
     promoter, ambassador and salesman, France has set the 
     standard by which all other forms of motor sports are 
     measured. He has taken it from a regional sport to a national 
     sport, and nurtured its growing popularity on television, 
     culminating in a record-setting $2.4 billion broadcast 
     contract.

  He served for a quarter century leading NASCAR to unbelievable 
heights and set the stage for what it has become today.
  I know I speak for hundreds of thousands of fans, the drivers, the 
pit crews and anyone and everyone who enjoys NASCAR, as well as 
Floridians and Daytona Beach residents, when I say a well deserved 
``thank you'' to Bill France, Jr., for making our weekends a lot more 
exciting, more enjoyable, and a lot faster. Florida thanks you for your 
vision, Bill. We will miss you, but you leave behind a legacy we will 
never forget.

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