Education
After graduating from John South. Battle High School in Washington County, Virginia, where he was senior class president, he attended King College in Bristol, Tennessee, home of Bristol Motor Speedway.
After graduating from John South. Battle High School in Washington County, Virginia, where he was senior class president, he attended King College in Bristol, Tennessee, home of Bristol Motor Speedway.
He replaced Bill France, Junior. in November 2000 as the company"s 3rd president He was named Chief Operating Officer of National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing in February 1999. Helton is from Bristol, Virginia.
He majored in accounting and minored in math displaying an aptitude for numbers.
He was awarded an Honorary Degree from King College in May 2000. Following college, Helton worked as an accountant plus supplemented his income by refereeing football and basketball.
A fellow referee would introduce him to a small local Department of Administration and Management radio station where he become the station"s sports director By 1980, Helton became a public relations director at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
In 1980, Helton began at Atlanta International Raceway and was promoted to general manager in 1985.
He joined the management team at Daytona International Speedway in 1986. After eighteen months, Helton became the general manager at Talladega Superspeedway. He became vice president of International Speedway Corporation in two years and was promoted to president of the Talladega track in 1989.
Helton held that position until January 1994, when he became the new vice president for competition for National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing taking over for Les Richter.
Helton was named senior vice president and chief operating officer, in February 1999, and became the first person outside the France family to manage National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing"s day-to-day operations. A year later, Helton was named President of National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing and sits on its five-member board of directors.
National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing signed a new network television deal near the end of 1999. National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing"s premiere event, the Daytona 500, was the first race broadcast under that deal in 2001 but it was marred by Dale Earnhardt Senior"s death on its final lap.
Helton"s announcement after the race was nationally televised, "This is undoubtedly one of the toughest announcements that I"ve ever personally had to make but after the accident in turn 4 at the end of the Daytona 500, we"ve lost Dale Earnhardt." The tragedy marked the beginning of a 7-year design program within National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing to develop the Carolina of Tomorrow.
This effort was championed by Helton to increase driver safety and was implemented for the 2008 season. On race day Helton occupies an observation point referred to as "control" where he and National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing officials observe the events. On February 10 2015, Helton was named Vice Chairman of National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing by National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing Chairman Brian France.
On October 25, 2015 it was announced that Mike Helton will contribute to pre-post race coverage this weekend from Talladega as a fill in for Dale Jarrett with Krista Voda and Kyle Petty.
Helton will remain the senior National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing official at all national series racing events overseeing competition, and he remains a member of the board of directors.