{"id":628563,"date":"2026-04-25T21:59:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T21:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/628563\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T21:59:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T21:59:10","slug":"nascars-new-ceo-signals-a-power-shift-that-had-already-happened","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/628563\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR\u2019s New CEO Signals A Power Shift That Had Already Happened"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Talladega<\/p>\n

TALLADEGA, ALABAMA – APRIL 25: (L-R) Ben Kennedy, NASCAR Chief Operating Officer, NASCAR Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR Chief Executive Officer, Lesa France Kennedy and Jim France, NASCAR Chairman pose for a photo after the NASCAR leadership announcements during a press conference at Talladega Superspeedway on April 25, 2026 in Talladega, Alabama. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Getty Images<\/p>\n

The announcement that Steve O\u2019Donnell has been named as the new CEO<\/a> of NASCAR is either a seismic shift that will rip a hole in the motorsports space-time continuum or merely a bump in track depending on your perspective. <\/p>\n

What isn\u2019t up for debate is the history. For the first time in NASCAR\u2019s 78-year existence, someone not carrying the France surname is in charge. That alone makes this less of a routine executive shuffle and more of a landmark moment, even if the day-to-day reality doesn\u2019t immediately feel all that different.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Donnell, for his part, was quick to frame it less as a revolution and more as a continuation. \u201cI am incredibly honored to be in this position and continue working with the France family,\u201d he said in a press conference Saturday at Talladega <\/a>Superspeedway, signaling that while the name on the office door has changed, the DNA of the sport very much has not.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Donnell replaces Jim France, the last surviving child of NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. who served as NASCAR Chairman and CEO since 2018.<\/p>\n

Jim France was never really supposed to be the long-term answer. When he stepped in<\/a>, it was as \u201cinterim\u201d CEO, a sort of the reluctant de facto choice after his nephew Brian France was hurriedly rushed off stage <\/a>in large part due to some dubious behavior. What followed wasn\u2019t so much a bold new era as it was a holding pattern.<\/p>\n

At 81, Jim France has always cut a quieter figure. Not a headline chaser. Not a podium pounder. In fact, during his tenure, he never formally met with the media, skipping the annual \u201cstate of the sport\u201d addresses<\/a> that had once been standard fare under Brian France. Those duties increasingly fell to others, most notably O\u2019Donnell.<\/p>\n

That arrangement worked well enough. Until it didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA – FEBRUARY 15: NASCAR Chairman and CEO Jim France attends his Chairman\u2019s Breakfast prior to the NASCAR Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 15, 2026 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Getty Images<\/p>\n

The NASCAR lawsuit late last year pulled back the curtain in a way the sport rarely allows. France was called to testify, and the image presented wasn\u2019t exactly one of commanding authority. Questions had to be repeated. Details were hazy. At one point, he couldn\u2019t recall his own compensation. What the public saw was less a corporate heavyweight and more a soft-spoken grandfather who sometimes couldn\u2019t remember what he had for lunch and who looked like he\u2019d be far more comfortable in a rocking chair than a boardroom.<\/p>\n

Behind the scenes, of course, the sport wasn\u2019t drifting aimlessly. The real operational muscle had long been split between O\u2019Donnell, former NASCAR President Steve Phelps, and Ben Kennedy\u2014the 34-year-old great-grandson of Bill France Sr. Phelps, who had been named NASCAR\u2019s first commissioner in March 2025, exited earlier this year <\/a>following the fallout from text messages revealed during the same legal proceedings.<\/p>\n

In stepping aside, Saturday France made clear what he feels he\u2019s leaving behind. \u201cI believe we have the finest team of people working and running NASCAR that we\u2019ve ever had in our entire history,\u201d he said. It\u2019s a line that says as much about his leadership style as it does about his exit, less about commanding the room, more about trusting the people in it.<\/p>\n

Kennedy, meanwhile, has continued his steady climb. From Truck Series driver to executive, he has worked his way through NASCAR\u2019s ranks; racing development, strategic initiatives, and most recently as senior vice president of strategy and innovation, before landing in the COO role. It\u2019s been less a meteoric rise and more a carefully plotted ascent.<\/p>\n

And if there was any doubt about who had been steering during the most critical moments, Jim France provided the answer himself. Reflecting on the early days of the pandemic, he pointed squarely at his successors. \u201cSteve and Ben went to work\u2026 and got us back to the racetrack, led the way for a lot of major sports getting back in business,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

DAYTONA BEACH, FL – 1947: NASCAR’s early leaders meet in the Streamline Hotel in Daytona Beach. Seated (L-R): Bob Richards, Freddie Horton, Jack Peters, Ed Bruce, Chick DiNatale, Harvey Tattersall Jr., Tom Galan, Alvin Hawkins, Bill Tuthill, Bill France Sr., Mildred Ayres, Joe Littlejohn, Jimmy Cox, Eddie Bland, Joe Ross, Sam Packard, Bill Streeter, Lucky Sauer. Standing (L-R): Larry Roller, Fred Dagavar, Bob Osiecki, Jimmy Quisenberry, Ed Samples, Marshall Teague. (Photo by ISC Archives\/CQ-Roll Call Group via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

ISC Archives\/CQ-Roll Call Group via Getty Images<\/p>\n

O’Donnell and Kennedy have been sort of a power couple in NASCAR for several years. <\/p>\n

After Brian Francis tumultuous reign ended, NASCAR seemed to become less like a huge cruise ship that only turned directions slowly and with O’Donnell and Kennedy working behind the scenes more like a speedboat they could turn on a dime. The two helped guide the sport during COVID shutdowns, taking it to places almost unimaginable just a few years before. New tracks on the schedule, new venues to race it and even new countries. The old boundaries started to look more like suggestions.<\/p>\n

And now that power couple is no longer working behind the curtain. They\u2019re center stage.<\/p>\n

And they sound exactly like you\u2019d expect from the people who\u2019ve already been doing the job. \u201cWe\u2019re going to make some moves, and we\u2019re going to have some fun,\u201d O\u2019Donnell said. It\u2019s not exactly a corporate buzzword salad, and that\u2019s the point. There\u2019s an urgency there, but also a recognition that the sport had, at times, forgotten to enjoy itself.<\/p>\n

DETROIT, MI – AUGUST 15: Ben Kennedy NASCARs managing director of racing operations and international development unveil the 2020 NASCAR Xfinity Mustang on August 15, 2019 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Leon Halip\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Getty Images<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also a clear philosophical shift toward speed, of decision-making, if not the cars themselves. \u201cYou can\u2019t take months and months to make a decision\u2026 you\u2019ve got to be quick, but you\u2019ve got to be smart about it,\u201d O\u2019Donnell added, describing a mindset that mirrors the very changes NASCAR has already been making.<\/p>\n

The question now becomes: for how long? Yes, O\u2019Donnell has been with the sport since 1996, so this is both a culmination and, potentially, a transition. But is he the long-term architect of the sport\u2019s next era, or the steady hand keeping the seat warm until Kennedy, young, connected, and very much part of the France lineage, is ready to take the final step?<\/p>\n

Or, and this is entirely possible, has this pairing become so effective, so in sync, that NASCAR has quietly stumbled into a leadership structure that could last far longer than anyone expects?<\/p>\n

Kennedy, unsurprisingly, isn\u2019t tipping his hand. \u201cI look forward to working alongside him\u2026 and seeing some more success,\u201d he said of O\u2019Donnell, offering praise without prediction, and leaving the long-term picture just ambiguous enough to keep everyone guessing.<\/p>\n

And what about the fans, and the rest of the industry, what could all this mean for them? Truthfully, probably very little. The trajectory NASCAR has been on, more experimental, more willing to take risks, more open to unconventional venues and ideas, was already being shaped by the very people now at the top. As O\u2019Donnell put it, \u201cwe\u2019re not starting from scratch\u2026 we\u2019re close to 80 years of building a foundation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The speedboat, as it turns out, left the dock some time ago. Now it just has a new name on the captain\u2019s chair.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLADEGA, ALABAMA – APRIL 25: (L-R) Ben Kennedy, NASCAR Chief Operating Officer, NASCAR Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR Chief Executive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[15823,114889,49,48,637,114890,634,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-628563","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-ben-kennedy","9":"tag-brian-france","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-france","13":"tag-jim-france","14":"tag-nascar","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628563","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=628563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}