The Associated Press file photo CEO and Chairman of NASCAR Jim France (right) along with the Executive Vice President of NASCAR Lesa Kennedy announce the Landmark Award to Edsel Ford II the Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Charlotte, N.C. Jan. 31, 2020.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — In the days following the 2004 Hendrick Motorsports plane crash that killed all 10 people aboard, Bill France Jr. and Mike Helton showed up at Rick Hendrick’s front door in Charlotte, N.C.

France, terminally ill at the time, was the chairman of NASCAR, the stock car racing series his iron-fisted father founded in 1948. Helton was the first non-family member at that time to rise to president of the series and very much in the France family inner circle.

The duo represented the very top of NASCAR, and Hendrick was their biggest team owner.

France had one question:

“You OK?” France asked the grief-stricken Hendrick, who had lost his namesake son, brother and twin nieces in the crash.

“And I said, ‘I’ll be all right,'” Hendrick recalled during an interview with The Associated Press. “And he said, ‘Whatever you need, whatever we can do, I just came here to tell you we’re here for you.’ And he turned around and went home.”

A different image

That is the story Hendrick chose to tell when asked if there was a counter-narrative to the image of the France family that emerged during December’s federal antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR and current chairman Jim France brought by two teams, one of them owned by Michael Jordan.

The lawsuit took a toll on the family, which settled the case after eight days of testimony that portrayed them as money-hoarding dictators who got rich while their teams were bleeding cash.

“I felt bad for all of them,” said Brian France, the grandson of founder Bill France Sr. who spent 15 years as chairman before stepping down in 2018. “A lot of what happened is the nature of lawsuits; lawsuits are never pretty. But for 75-plus years, somebody has had to balance what is good for everybody, all of the stakeholders and certainly the fans. Our record in doing that, although not perfect, is that we’ve actually done an amazing job.”

The negative image of the France family presented at trial contrasts sharply with the personal experiences of many in the motorsports industry, including Michael Shank, who launched a race-winning program by mortgaging his house to start in the France-owned IMSA sports car series.

Shank told AP that Jim France personally backed his loan, helping Meyer Shank Racing off the ground.

“These are good people who care about the industry and built it on their backs, and it pissed me off to see how it was twisted,” said Shank, who now fields cars in multiple series and won the Indianapolis 500 in 2021.

Hendrick found the entire dispute avoidable and said he believes the case never would have made it to court under Bill France Jr. or Brian France. Before the settlement, he was set to testify on behalf of NASCAR, though he told AP he was prepared to note how often NASCAR’s winningest team has been punished by the series.

“I made a decision when I started to be a private business and to stay private because I didn’t want the pressure of a board or stockholders telling me how to run my business,” Hendrick said. “And I say that because the Frances’ sacrificed. They built it, and they made a whole lot of drivers very rich.”

Fallout from lawsuit

When 23XI and Front Row signed a new charter agreement, the case was officially dismissed last week as the series readies for the season-opening Daytona 500 on Sunday. A sport that was fractured during the charter negotiations and lawsuit now appears united again and ready to put the focus squarely on the racing.

Gary Nelson, who won a Cup Series championship as Bobby Allison’s crew chief, acknowledged having negative thoughts about NASCAR when he worked in the garage. He later took a leadership role with the company in competition and today is general manager of Action Express.

“NASCAR has always had an us-vs.-them feeling, but when I went to work for them, one of the main things the family made clear to me was, ‘You have to treat everyone equally and fairly,'” Nelson said. “It’s not a charity. You have to work hard to make it, and we’ve seen so many people make tremendous wealth, millionaires created many, many, many times over by the France family.”