Branham book on Bill France Jr. to be released in March

Posted Dec 22, 2009 by Bob D'Angelo

Updated Dec 22, 2009 at 05:32 PM

Former Tampa Tribune sportswriter H.A. Branham will be hitting the bookstands again next year.

With a scheduled release date of March 2010 by Triumph Books,. “Bill France Jr.: The Man Who Made NASCAR,” promises to be a thorough examination of the man who guided NASCAR through its biggest growth and popularity.
Branham is no stranger to writing books on auto racing, authoring the “NASCAR Family Album” and co-writing “The NASCAR Vault.”

He’s also a guy with local ties, who attended Leto and Hillsborough high schools and graduated from the University of South Florida in 1979. He currently works for NASCAR out of Daytona Beach as director of written communications.
Branham’s first book, in 1996, was on tennis legend Pete Sampras, called “Sampras: A Legend In the Making.”

Herb covered auto racing and tennis at the Tribune, so his credentials are good. Knowing his connections in the sport of stock car racing and a writing style that is inventive and at times quite edgy, I suspect this will not be a glossy, fawning book.

It will be an insider’s look at a man who, as chairman of NASCAR, shaped it into a wildly popular sport.