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NASCAR has been a family business since Bill France Sr. parked cars on Daytona Beach and made a sport out of it. His sons ran it after him, and when things got complicated in 2018, the family turned to the last one standing in the building, Jim France. Eight years later, he’s stepping away, but on his own terms.
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Jim France Is Out as CEO, and NASCAR Has a New Face at the Top
NASCAR scheduled a meeting with teams to announce the leadership change. Adam Stern reported that Steve O’Donnell, who had been the president, will be named CEO, as Ben Kennedy, France’s great-nephew, moves up to Chief Operating Officer.
France will retain the chairman’s role and his 54% ownership stake, while his niece, Lesa France Kennedy, Ben’s mother, will hold the remaining 46%. Which is to say that the ownership remains in the family, even as leadership changes, which is a first. For the first time in NASCAR’s 78-year history, the CEO seat will be held by someone not named France.
Still and all, O’Donnell’s name didn’t come out of nowhere, and he has been methodically moved through the organization. He was the COO in 2022 before becoming president in 2025.
However, Steve O’Donnell is a polarizing figure, largely due to his major role in a major antitrust lawsuit that accuses him of using “bully” tactics to protect NASCAR’s monopoly. Leaked court documents included texts between Steve Phelps, Steve O’Donnell, and Scott Prime about wanting to “put a knife” through the rival SRX Series Plus. There were also derogatory remarks about team owner Richard Childress.
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He has also drawn fan criticism for admitting stage breaks were designed to fit more TV commercials and for backing the “Next Gen” car. Yet, O’Donnell now has the full scope of operations—the Cup Series, the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, and the Truck Series—along with IMSA’s sports car program, company-owned tracks, long-term planning, and financial oversight. This is why his appointment seems somewhat controversial to many.
In reality, though, Ben Kennedy might be the star of the show. The 34-year-old has been instrumental in reshaping the schedule, including the LA Coliseum exhibition and the Chicago street race, and is seen by many as a future CEO. In fact, O’Donnell has served as his mentor. So, all this could just be a waiting game.
As for France, he came into the CEO role under difficult circumstances. In August 2018, his nephew Brian France was arrested in New York on charges of DWI and criminal possession of oxycodone. Brian took an indefinite leave of absence, and Jim assumed the role of interim chairman and CEO almost overnight. He was 73 at the time.
His ties to the sport are not just based on his family name. He had been working within the France family’s motorsports operations since 1959, when he joined the International Speedway Corporation at age 14. Over the following decades, he worked through every level of ISC management, eventually becoming its president from 1987 to 2003.
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He also founded GRAND-AM Road Racing in 1999 and was the driving force behind its merger with the American Le Mans Series, which formed IMSA in 2014. When he became CEO, he was someone who had spent 60 years building the core of NASCAR.
Still, the years since 2018 were not dormant for NASCAR’s front office, and many things appear to have pulled the timing of this transition into perspective.
A String of Events That Made a Leadership Change Inevitable
The biggest pressure point came from a lawsuit filed by 23XI Racing, co-owned by Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin, along with Front Row Motorsports. The teams sued NASCAR over its charter agreement, claiming the organization operated as a monopoly and used that power to limit team rights and revenue sharing.
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The case went to trial in late 2025 and was settled in early 2026, with NASCAR making a major concession: permanent charters for teams. It was a change that led with a message: the old way of doing things had limits.
The legal battle also created collateral damage internally. Steve Phelps, who had been NASCAR’s first-ever commissioner, resigned in January 2026. Leaked text messages and testimony from the trial had cast a shadow over leadership, and Phelps’ exit felt like the first sign that more changes were coming.
Ben Kennedy’s growing visibility in the months leading up to the announcement had not gone unnoticed either. France’s great-nephew had been attending more events, increasing his public presence, and was already the vice president and chief venue and racing innovations officer. Many reporters alluded to such observations over time.
In the broader context of things, declining Cup Series ratings compared to the sport’s peak in the 2000s, expansion into new markets, and the ongoing need to modernize how NASCAR operates commercially, only reinforced why a clean handover made sense now rather than later.
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