Steve O'Donnell and Ben Kennedy Outline Five-Year Goals in New NASCAR Leadership Roles

I know there are a number of areas that we need to address, and we're going to move with urgency, but what we're going to need from this industry, and I'm talking to everyone in this industry now, is their collective intelligence because we've got some of the brightest minds in all of motorsports each and every weekend in the garage.

Following last year's Playoffs, fan support of the system was at an all-time low, as the drive to create an exciting product robbed the sport of the mentality that made it popular. The first change during the offseason, once the dust of the antitrust lawsuit was settled, was to revamp the system, basically bringing back 'The Chase' format that was run and mostly well-received from 2004-2015.

When asked by Fox Sports' Bob Pockrass what NASCAR looks like to O'Donnell in five years, he said that if everything goes right, the sport should be chased by partners. For several seasons, to watch every race of the three national series, you need multiple subscriptions and a detailed calendar of network changes as the schedule gets piecemealed across semi-interested partners.

"Five years from now, if we're clicking on all cylinders, you'll see the sport be a must-have from TV partners, whatever the media may be," O'Donnell said. "More and more sponsors are activating across drivers. I think you'll see drivers that are crossover superstars outside of racing. You're seeing that happen. More and more value of teams continues to increase."

NASCAR has received criticism for trying to change too much to court a new audience and being too stuck in it's way. Putting them in a no-win situation when it comes to growth.

With this next attempt at growth, O'Donnell wants to be authentic, not in an overly nostalgic way focused on keeping things the same, but in the spirit of the sport, highlighting the very best, from the racing, to the innovation, to the lore. Using the rich catalog of what NASCAR is to bring new fans in.

"NASCAR has always been an American original," O'Donnell said. "My job, our job, I think all of our jobs is to make sure that the next generation of fans, wherever they grow up, whatever they do, wherever they come from, whatever makes them unique, know that this sport belongs to them. Not because we changed who we are, but because new fans recognize what our core fans have known all along that we're a badass American sport."

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With O'Donnell leaving the Chief Operating Officer role, Kennedy gets promoted from leading Events and Venues to the position. Before answering the media, Kennedy and O'Donnell took photos with his great-uncle Jim and his mother, Lessa. Ben and Lessa embraced as she left the stage, leaving the spotlight to NASCAR's new leadership team.

Kennedy had a number of wins during his tenure with events and venues, creating dynamic schedules over the last six years and taking big swings on new marquee events like The Clash at the Coliseum, the Chicago Street Race, and NASCAR's visit to CDMX's Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.

"I've really enjoyed working with the events and venues team," Kennedy said. "I think it's neat to be able to somewhat follow in my mom's footsteps. She was always on the track side of the business, working at International Speedway Corporation (ISC). Our events and venues are critical to us. And for me, this comes a bit full circle. I've always been a competitor at heart, had a chance to drive for 11 years. I raced out here at Talladega a couple of times, had a couple of good and bad finishes along the way, but I love the racing aspect of the business."

Kennedy will now be more involved with the competition side of the business while still overseeing events and venues, tagging Julie Giese, former president of Phoenix Raceway and the Chicago Street Race, to help in the creation of the 2027 schedule.

"She's now leading all of our scheduling efforts," Kennedy said on Giese. "So she's done a tremendous job already helping us build out the 2027 schedule. We're actually leaving after this and going to sit down with a few drivers to talk about it. But we've got a great team on the events and venues team, whether it's our racetracks folks are thinking about hospitality, food, and beverage at our tracks."

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