NASCAR turns to Steve O’Donnell to lead the sport after a turbulent legal battle, while Ben Kennedy gains greater responsibility in a family business with succession still undecided.
Jim France kept his speech short at Talladega Superspeedway on April 25. After 78 years of family rule, NASCAR handed the CEO job to Steve O'Donnell while the founder's great-grandson sat right beside him. France closed the handover with a line suited to the occasion.
“So Steve, you got the wheel, partner,” France said.
Then a reporter turned to Ben Kennedy, NASCAR's new chief operating officer, and asked why he had not received the top job himself. Kennedy explained it by pointing to a different kind of lineage (a chain of executives who mentored one another to run the sport). Longtime NASCAR leader Mike Helton had helped O'Donnell, who had helped him.
“I feel like Mike was a mentor to Steve, and Steve has been a big mentor to me. He was the first person I called when I said, Hey, I want to take the job at NASCAR, come and work for you guys,” Kennedy said.
The exchange explains why Kennedy's future hangs over O'Donnell's appointment. NASCAR hasn't named a permanent CEO. Instead, it is giving a family heir more responsibility while an experienced insider runs things after a tough legal battle. For Kennedy, the apprenticeship now comes with considerably more responsibility.
The family still owns the business
O'Donnell is an outsider only by surname. He has spent more than 30 years at NASCAR, working in marketing and competition before becoming president in March 2025. His promotion ends a direct line of family leaders that started with Bill France Sr. and passed down through Bill Jr., Brian, and Jim.
Jim, 81, remains chairman. Trial evidence put 54.7% of NASCAR in the Jim France Family Trust and 45.3% in the Lesa France Kennedy Family Trust. Lesa is Jim's niece and Ben's mother, placing Kennedy within one of the two ownership branches.
Every percentage point therefore remains in family hands. Hiring O'Donnell lets the France family hand off daily operations while keeping their investment safe. It also gives Kennedy time to learn the business without the immediate pressure of the CEO role. It is a practical setup, as long as you separate the family's behind-the-scenes ownership from the actual job titles.
The courtroom fight explains the job ahead
The distinction between running NASCAR and owning it became painfully public when Michael Jordan's 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports sued in October 2024. The suit challenged NASCAR's control over tracks, TV revenue, and charters—the crucial system that guarantees teams a starting spot and a slice of the income.
For teams, secure charters help turn years of spending into something they can eventually sell. NASCAR’s refusal to make these charters permanent wasn't just about fine print. Team owners were fighting for the right to build valuable, lasting businesses under rules they didn't control.
At trial, plaintiffs' economist Edward Snyder estimated annual NASCAR earnings of about $250 million from 2021 through 2024 and roughly $400 million in family distributions. Commissioner Steve Phelps testified that about 75% of those distributions covered taxes under NASCAR's S-corporation structure. The figures gave teams ammunition, although treating every distributed dollar as family spending money would misrepresent the testimony.
Snyder also calculated that 36 chartered teams had received $1.06 billion less than his model said they should. NASCAR disputed the case, and the December 11 settlement came before a jury verdict. Its announced terms included amendments offering a form of evergreen charters, subject to mutual agreement, while financial terms remained confidential.
Settling could stop the courtroom battle. Repairing relationships required more work, especially after litigation exposed Phelps' insulting texts about team owner Richard Childress. Phelps announced his resignation on January 6. Four months later, O'Donnell inherited an industry that had watched private contempt become public evidence.
O'Donnell must turn listening into influence
O'Donnell had uncomfortable testimony of his own. Asked about a harsh text criticizing the direction of charter negotiations, he described his wording as poor and explained his frustration that the industry was failing to work together. His promotion does not prove the family endorsed that criticism. It does put the executive who expressed it in charge of improving those relationships.
At Talladega, he made cooperation the starting point of his leadership agenda.
“The first goal that we've got is to really unite our industry. I want to create a culture where there's collaboration, a genuine collaboration, where everybody wins,” O'Donnell said.
By July, he had created seven committees involving teams in discussions about cars, schedules, revenue, international growth and other priorities. They give owners a place to help shape decisions. Their published descriptions, however, establish no power to overrule NASCAR's owners. Getting a seat at the table helps; what happens when the table disagrees will show how much has changed.
Kennedy has some relevant experience here. Recalling his early competition work at the same April press conference, O'Donnell said Kennedy had met all 36 Truck Series team owners and produced a report within three days after being assigned to address relationship problems. The story comes from his boss, but it identifies a useful skill: listening to complaints and bringing back something management can act on.
Kennedy now has to manage the whole race
Kennedy's experience as a driver and team owner gives him a view from the other side of the fence. His scheduling work also helped take NASCAR to the Los Angeles Coliseum, Chicago's streets and Mexico City. As COO, he adds John Probst's competition operation to events and venues, connecting where races happen with what fans watch on track.
Just as telling is the work he has handed over. Julie Giese now leads scheduling, with Kennedy retaining oversight. The 2027 calendar keeps Chicagoland following its July 2026 return and brings NASCAR back to San Diego after this year's debut. Delegating those details gives Kennedy room to manage across departments. Honestly, that looks much more like preparation for running a company than another interesting stop on the calendar.
The experimentation carries a bill. At trial, O'Donnell testified that NASCAR lost about $55 million over three years on Chicago's street race, while arguing that the event helped attract Amazon. Kennedy's next challenge is judging which investments deserve time to develop and which should stop consuming money from the company.
The commercial stakes stretch well beyond race weekends. Under Jim France, NASCAR secured media agreements reportedly worth $7.7 billion over 2025–31, averaging $1.1 billion annually. O'Donnell wants the industry pulling together before negotiations expected around 2029. Kennedy's decisions about venues and competition will help determine what broadcasters are being asked to buy.
In September's CNBC interview, O'Donnell also discussed international expansion, emphasizing building recognition before adding destinations. For Kennedy, that means weighing the expense of reaching new fans against the business those fans might eventually support. Moving a race is easy to announce; making it pay requires patient work.
A succession route without a promised finish
A professional management structure could make NASCAR easier for an outside investor to assess. But O'Donnell has said NASCAR is not for sale, distinguishing possible property partnerships from selling the company. Snyder's $5 billion courtroom equity valuation was his estimate of NASCAR's worth, not an asking price or a valuation of the family trusts.
The evidence points more clearly toward giving Kennedy experience while the family keeps ownership. Even so, his next promotion remains unpromised. He and O'Donnell must make decisions for teams, tracks and broadcasters whose interests sometimes pull apart. Listening will leave somebody disappointed, which makes explaining the decision part of the job.
Discussing Helton's example at Talladega, O'Donnell described the obligation that comes after hearing everybody out.
“You can't always agree, but you better listen. You better go back and talk to people. If you're going to go left or right, you decide to go left, you better explain why you didn't go right,” O'Donnell said.
