NASCAR’s First Outsider CEO Is Betting on Something Radical: Listening

NASCAR’s First Non-France CEO Bets on ListeningJared C. Tilton - Getty Images

Collaboration is NASCAR Chief Executive Officer Steve O’Donnell’s primary objective as he becomes the first non-France family member to hold the CEO position in the organization’s 78-year history.

“The first goal that we’ve got is to really unite our industry,” O’Donnell said during a press conference Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway. “I want to create a culture where there’s collaboration, a genuine collaboration, where everybody wins.”

O’Donnell’s emphasis on collaboration comes within four months of a settlement in a federal antitrust suit that 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports filed against NASCAR.

“I know there’s a number of areas that we need to address and we’re going to move with urgency,” O’Donnell said. “What we’re going to need from this industry, and I’m talking to everyone in this industry now, is their collective intelligence.

“I think the Chase is an example of when we are at our best. Everyone contributed to that idea. We had every stakeholder in the industry weighing in on what this could be. You can see when we do those things, we don’t always agree on exactly what comes out, but everybody has had input.”

O’Donnell says the No. 1lesson he has learned from Mike Helton, the first non-France family member to be NASCAR’s president, is that accessibility is essential.

“You can’t always agree, but you better listen,” O’Donnell said. “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. As long as you have a good reason, everything will work out.”

The 57-year-old O’Donnell believes NASCAR’s management team executes the day-to-day activities well, but the question is where the organization should be in five years. O’Donnell and newly appointed NASCAR Chief Operating Officer Ben Kennedy are working closely together on that plan.

This isn’t the first time O’Donnell and Kennedy, a former driver and the great grandson of NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., have worked closely together. In 2020, they worked tirelessly on plans to bring the sport back when it was shut down during the COVID pandemic.

“(They) got us back to the race track, led the way for a lot of major sports getting back in business, and the first to bring their fans back,” said Jim France, who’s stepping down as NASCAR’s CEO but remaining as its chairman.