Ben Keating ’94 leverages Aggie Network to business, racing success

Jo Dee Messina’s song Heads Carolina, Tails California likely isn’t playing in the ears of Ben Keating ’94 when he’s speeding around tracks at 200 miles per hour, but racing the equivalent of that cross-country distance is nothing new to him. He’s also found success in the car business, now owning over 30 dealerships across Texas and employing over 3,500 people, many of whom are former students. Helping Aggies in both business and racing is par for the course for Keating.

A turn around the track

For Christmas 2005, Ben’s wife, Kathleen ’94, bought him a day-at-the-track pass that gave him the opportunity to try his hand at the wheel and would change the course of his life. “It was the most fun I’d ever had, and I promised myself I would continue to do it more often,” he said. 

His first race as an amateur race car driver came in 2007 in the Viper Racing League, a club-level racing series, and he was quickly engrossed in all things endurance racing, where teams drive anywhere from three to 24 hours with three drivers switching off.  

After winning nearly all major endurance races, including the famed 10-hour Petit Le Mans and 24 Hours of Daytona, Ben hasn’t called it quits yet. “It’s just crazy to think that an old car dealer from Texas can go out and do all that crazy stuff,” he said.

Accelerating toward the car business

That same competitive mindset helped Ben get his dealership business started.

Ben’s father was a Ford dealer in Tomball, near Houston. “The only thing I knew about the car business was the jobs I had when I worked there, which was picking up trash, parking cars in a straight line and washing cars, so I wanted nothing to do with the car business at all,” he said.

Ben completed an internship during college with Service Group out of Austin, which conducted business with different car dealers. “That is where I fell in love with the car business,” he said. Not long after, Ben went to work as a salesman at Covert Ford in Austin. 

Ben and Kathleen bought their first dealership in 2002 in the Texas coastal town of Port Lavaca. Keating Auto Group now has 33 dealerships across Texas encompassing 17 different brands. 

Join Ben in this video for a lap around Road Atlanta, a 2.54-mile course in Braselton, Georgia, home to the 10-hour Petit Le Mans!

Connecting with the Aggie Network

Through it all, Texas A&M has been a constant in Ben’s life. The Keatings are members of the Chancellor’s Century Council, keep season tickets for football and their two children, Carter ’20 and Kate ’22, are Aggies. Keating Auto Group has been a recipient of the Aggie 100 award, which annually recognizes the 100 fastest-growing Aggie-owned or Aggie-led businesses, several times over the past decade. “Our ability to grow is based on having incredible people," he said. "I’ve recruited out of A&M for 30 years.”

In October 2025, the Keatings attended the Distinguished Alumni Gala, an annual ceremony organized by The Association that recognizes Aggies who have earned the highest honor bestowed upon a former student of Texas A&M.

“When I was at that Distinguished Alumni [Gala] and they were listing off everybody who is an Endowed Century Club member, I asked [Association President and CEO Porter Garner?’79], ‘What’s it take to be an Endowed Century Club member?’” Ben said.

After learning that the Endowed Century Club provides an opportunity to make a lasting gift to Texas A&M by creating a perpetual source of funding for The Association, he and Kathleen realized they could have a real impact on current and future generations of Aggies.

Looking back and ahead

Ben said his biggest reward over the span of his career has been the ability to elevate others, emphasizing the success he has is due to those who make Keating Auto Group flow seamlessly every day. “I think that one of the biggest blessings that I have experienced has been the fact that whether it’s racing, life in general or my chosen career, it’s a total blessing that I love what I do.”

Keating sustained a training injury this past spring but recovered quickly, placed first at the 2026 24 Hours of Le Mans in June and is set to race in October’s World Endurance Championship race in Doha, Qatar.

What is the Endowed Century Club?

The Endowed Century Club is a $25,000 gifting opportunity through which former students and friends of Texas A&M University can contribute over five years to help Texas A&M and Texas Aggies. The principal remains intact, and investment income is used to give back year after year. Visit tx.ag/ECC for information.

To join this generous group of donors, contact Mary Miller ’87 at MMiller87@AggieNetwork.com.

See the full article in the upcoming September-October issue of Texas Aggie magazine, made available to all donors of The Association at the Active level or above. If you are not currently giving to The Association, donate here at tx.ag/Give.