- O’Donnell becomes fifth CEO in Nascar history – and the first outside the France family
- Jim France retains 54% ownership stake, remaining 46% is owned by Lesa France Kennedy, Ben Kennedy’s mother
- O’Donnell says his unifying message is “getting a little bit more fun back in the sport”
Nascar has named Steve O’Donnell as its new chief executive, the first person outside of the France family to hold the role in the organisation’s 78-year history.
Jim France, who has served as chief executive since 2018, will remain as Nascar chairman. In addition, Ben Kennedy has been promoted to chief operating officer.
France’s 54 per cent ownership stake in the series remains unchanged. The remaining 46 per cent share is owned by his niece Lesa France Kennedy, Ben Kennedy’s mother.
This completes a fast ascension for O’Donnell, who was only named president of Nascar in March 2025. He now becomes only the fifth chief executive in Nascar’s history.
“I think it would be a bit presumptuous of me to come in right away and say, ‘here’s the plan,’ ” said O’Donnell. “What I’m going to do is go out and do a lot of listening, especially the first 90 days.
“We’ve got so many talented people in the industry — team owners, drivers, track, sponsors, even our own internal personnel that I want to go have some conversations with about what do they see and what are the opportunities.
“I think the great news is, we’ve got an unbelievable foundation, right? We’ve got a great broadcast deal. We’ve got charters in place, a strong schedule. So all those nuts and bolts are there, and it’s really taking that and looking at how do we make Nascar an absolute must-have sport in the future.”
The 57-year-old executive stated his unifying message was “getting a little bit more fun back in the sport”.
He continued: “There’s certainly things we can always improve on, but for me, I look at this season as the start of that foundation, of kind of that next generation of Nascar, and that foundation is really solid. So I think it gives us the opportunity right now to go talk about the future.
“From time to time, we get stuck in kind of the day to day, and I think we all recognise right now that we have a really good thing that we can build on, but let’s talk about what does it look like five years from now and make those changes, because it’s going to take time.
“We’re going to need everyone to be aligned, and so now’s the time to say, all right, we’ve got a good thing going here in the first quarter. Let’s get through this year, let’s not take anything for granted, but let’s really think about where we want to be in 2030 and beyond.”
BlackBook says…
This move comes after a difficult year for the championship in which the bruising legal proceedings with 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports led to the demise of commissioner Steve Phelps. The 63-year-old made a ‘personal decision’ to step away from the sport in January this year.
O’Donnell was on the receiving end of various texts attributed to Phelps that ultimately led to his resignation, something which led to speculation around O’Donnell’s position at the series.
Instead, O’Donnell – who first joined Nascar in its marketing department back in 1996 – has now been installed at the very top of the sport.
Some fans may believe this does not represent a big enough change from the status quo, but the news that Kennedy has been promoted to such an influential role seems more noteworthy.
Having been involved operationally with Nascar since 2019, Kennedy has been in charge of scheduling for all three of Nascar’s national series during that time. Many believe the 34-year-old to be Nascar’s next chief executive, so a few years serving under O’Donnell to learn the ropes appears to be an astute move.
Until then, this new leadership team must ensure stability is found as the series adjusts to a new era of permanent charters and greater power amongst the teams.
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