DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. \u2014 NASCAR is preparing for the most significant leadership transition in its history, with longtime chairman and CEO Jim France relinquishing his role as chief executive and turning day-to-day control of the sport over to NASCAR president Steve O\u2019Donnell, according to multiple industry reports.<\/p>\n
France, whose family founded NASCAR in 1948, is expected to remain chairman, while O\u2019Donnell will become chief executive officer, making him the first non\u2013France family member to lead the sport\u2019s daily operations.<\/p>\n
The move is expected to be formally announced this weekend. France, 81, will retain his ownership stake in NASCAR, which currently stands at 54%. The remaining 46% is owned by his niece, Lesa France Kennedy, whose son, Ben Kennedy, is also expected to receive an expanded leadership role. Kennedy is set to be promoted to chief operating officer after serving as executive vice president and overseeing racing innovation and venue operations.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Donnell\u2019s promotion marks a historic shift for a sport that, for nearly eight decades, has been led exclusively by members of the founding family. NASCAR has never before handed its top executive post to someone outside the France lineage.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Donnell has spent nearly 30 years with NASCAR and was named president in 2025 following a broader restructuring that created a commissioner role for Steve Phelps. As president, O\u2019Donnell oversaw competition, racing operations and the sport\u2019s national series, playing a central role in rules changes, schedule adjustments and ongoing negotiations with teams over the charter system.<\/p>\n
France has gradually reduced his public presence in recent years, though he has remained involved in major strategic decisions. His step back from the CEO role reflects an effort to modernize NASCAR\u2019s governance while maintaining family oversight at the board level.<\/p>\n
The transition was first reported by The Athletic and subsequently confirmed by prominent NASCAR reporter Bob Pockrass and others on social media.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. \u2014 NASCAR is preparing for the most significant leadership transition in its history, with longtime…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[15823,49,48,925,634,582,721,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-626292","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-ben-kennedy","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-daytona","12":"tag-nascar","13":"tag-racing","14":"tag-series","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=626292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}