Jim France is now the last from his family to sit on the NASCAR throne as its CEO. For more than seven decades, the France family has run the sport as a monopoly. Now that it’s time for him to pass the baton to Steve O’Donnell and Ben Kennedy, France thinks that it is a good time to remind the people of his successors’ contributions to the sport.

Jim France steps down as the CEO of NASCAR

In his final speech before stepping down from the post of NASCAR’s CEO, France said, “I am a little embarrassed by that because it is difficult to take credit for other people’s hard work. And I happen to be lucky to be a part of a great team called NASCAR.”

As he moved forward with his speech, he revealed the truth behind one of the greatest moments in modern NASCAR history. The amazing comeback that NASCAR made in the COVID-19 pandemic is widely regarded as a masterclass of sport management from Jim France. But somewhere behind the scenes, NASCAR’s future leaders were the ones pulling the strings.

“I believe we have the finest team people working on running NASCAR ever had in its entire history. It’s going to be my honor to turn this over to NASCAR’s CEO Steve O’Donnell. I want to make a quick comment about watching what Steve and Ben did starting in March of 2020 when we were all sent home, told that we were nonessential, and people were trying to figure out how they were going to put beans on their table.

“Steve and Ben went to work putting together a plan for getting our industry together. Got us back to the racetrack and led the way for a lot of major sports to get back in business. Great team. Gonna take this even further. Steve, you’ve got the wheel, partner.”

In a way, the pandemic and lockdown gave new life to NASCAR. Just when the other famous sports shut their operations to brace for the pandemic, NASCAR doubled down on its efforts to take the spotlight. And it delivered the promise really well.

It was a great milestone for the sport to complete its long 36-race schedule in spite of a two-month delay and multiple security and health measures in place. France’s admission about Ben Kennedy’s and Steve O’Donnell’s roles is also a slap in the face to the people who are furiously criticizing their roles in the sport.

For a while during the NASCAR vs. 23XI Racing lawsuit, Steve Phelps’ comments had dragged the sport’s name through the mud. Since then, the fans have been rather spiteful towards O’Donnell. They consider him the spiritual successor to Steve Phelps and want him out of the sport for good. Although O’Donnell has been rather understanding towards them and is actively working for the betterment of the sport.

Why is Steve O’Donnell the perfect man for the job?

France’s words are also in line with Mike Helton’s sentiments towards Kennedy and O’Donnell. Earlier, Helton wanted to bridge the gap that was created between O’Donnell and the fans, saying, “I would tell you that in my 40-year career with the France family and the 80-year history of this sport.

“I think personally the leadership for the next 15-20 years is through Steve O’Donnell and Ben Kennedy and the support that they have from other really qualified individuals, all of them working side by side with each other to do the right thing for the right reasons. I think today’s leadership in NASCAR is as good as it’s ever been.”

Needless to say, the sentiments against O’Donnell haven’t gone down yet. There are still a lot of fans in NASCAR who have deep-rooted hatred for Steve O’Donnell. And honestly, it doesn’t make a lot of sense because when Steve O’Donnell addressed the future of NASCAR, it was quite clear that he wanted to give the fans everything that was missing in the sport for them.

O’Donnell was the one who proposed a reset in the sport long before becoming the CEO of NASCAR. “Now what you’re seeing us do is … yes, we can introduce the sport to new fans, but here’s how we got here. We had a difficult 18 months. We came out of that in a good place … The opportunity now is we’re going into this season really with no contractual obligations out in front of us, no lawsuits, and no COVID. We can just talk about how cool NASCAR racing is.”

In fact, one of the main issues that he wanted to address in his agenda was the divide between NASCAR executives and the teams. The lawsuits and the hateful messages that surfaced in the last year showed the true feelings among the teams and NASCAR itself. This was a no-go for O’Donnell.

With a fresh start to the year and a satisfactory end to the lawsuit with 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports, O’Donnell knew that changes would come when teams would start to trust the sport again. So all in all, his ideals and motives have been the replica of the fans’ wishes. Thus, it is safe to say that for now, he is NASCAR’s best bet at a future that looks positive and full of growth.