NASCAR’s France Era Ends: Jim France Steps Down as CEO
· Yahoo Sports
For the first time since Bill France Sr. hammered the sport together in a Daytona Beach hotel room in 1948, somebody whose last name isn’t France will be running NASCAR. Jim France, 81, is stepping down as CEO and handing the job to current league president Steve O’Donnell, per reporting from The Athletic citing multiple industry sources.
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Ben Kennedy, France’s great-nephew and the family‘s heir apparent, is being bumped up to chief operating officer. The announcement is expected this weekend at Talladega.
France keeps the chairman title and, more importantly, his 54 percent ownership stake. His niece Lesa France Kennedy, Ben’s mother, still holds the other 46 percent. So the family isn’t selling the sport. They’re just no longer personally sitting in the CEO chair, which is a first.
Why Now, and Why O’Donnell
O’Donnell has been at NASCAR for 30 years and was promoted to president last year, so his elevation isn’t exactly a surprise. What’s interesting is the timing.
The last 18 months have been the most turbulent stretch of France-family rule in decades, starting with the antitrust lawsuit filed by 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports, which named Jim France personally and dragged NASCAR’s internal decision-making into open federal court.
The two sides settled on day nine of the trial and publicly pledged to play nice, but the reputational damage to France and to the old top-down model was done. Then-commissioner Steve Phelps resigned in January.
O’Donnell argues the succession has been planned for a while and isn’t lawsuit fallout, pointing to the fact that NASCAR has finally stabilized the business side: media rights confirmed through 2031, a charter deal done with the teams, and the playoff format settled. That’s a reasonable case, though the optics of handing off the CEO job months after a monopoly trial nearly went to a jury are what they are.
What Changes and What Doesn’t
On paper, O’Donnell now runs everything: the Cup, NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and Truck series, the IMSA sports car operation, the company-owned tracks, long-term strategy, the financials.
In practice, Ben Kennedy is the name to watch. At 34, he’s been the driving force behind the schedule changes that produced the LA Coliseum exhibition and the Chicago street race, and he’s widely expected to eventually take the CEO job himself. O’Donnell has effectively been his mentor. This looks less like a break from the France family and more like a bridge to the next one.
Jim France never wanted the spotlight anyway. He took the CEO role in 2018 as an emergency fix when his nephew Brian France stepped down after a DWI arrest, and he’s spent the years since wandering the garage in plaid shirts looking more like a fan than an owner.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. told The Athletic he likes France’s “calm demeanor” and the fact that he “just shows up” and walks around like a regular person.
That’s the version of France the paddock will remember. The version that got deposed in federal court over antitrust claims is the one that probably made this week’s decision easier to sign off on.