NASCAR State Of Sport: League’s View On Driver Safety, Schedule & Next Gen Car

Homestead-Miami Speedway (Homestead, Fla.) — New NASCAR Chief Executive Officer Steve O’Donnell described NASCAR as a spot with momentum but one with work to do, as he talked about scheduling, the car and driver safety during his state-of-the-sport news conference Friday. O’Donnell’s NASCAR career has spanned decades and he was named CEO in April. He cited a 5 percent rise in attendance and social media impressions being up 34 percent. “I think as you look at what we can do and what that focus should be on where we’re going,” O’Donnell said. “I hear the fans, and it’s in making NASCAR easier to follow, and we’ve got to do a better job telling the stories about the people that are in this industry.” Telling those stories depends on a variety of factors. Among the topics O’Donnell addressed: Scheduling O’Donnell said the sport continues to look at new markets, including international markets, but had nothing to announce. He said the plan of having an annual race at a military base (NASCAR will return to Naval Base Coronado in 2027 but has said it will go to a different base in 2028) has widespread support and felt confident in the plan no matter the result of elections. On new domestic markets: “Then longer term is making sure that we’re hitting the markets that are important to grow our fan base. So in some cases, you can look at opening up those avenues through social media, YouTube, or content. In others, we may need to bring a race.” On new international markets: “We don’t want to just go somewhere for the sake of going somewhere. If we take a race somewhere, we want to make sure that we’re not just in and out, maybe collecting a fee for the teams in NASCAR and what have we done? Have we brought any new sponsors? OEMs [manufacturers]? New fans? So it’s important for us to go into a marketplace, develop some fans, be in a local market, maybe bring some drivers in, be in the bars, whatever that may be, so they understand what NASCAR is when we go over.” The Car O’Donnell said their fan surveys show satisfaction in the racing product, even with the short-track package that has gotten the brunt of the criticism. He said NASCAR is happy with where they are at from an aerodynamic sense and will not test at Daytona in January. He also said the costs to start developing a new version of the Next Gen car would not be as beneficial as making tweaks to the current car. NASCAR is also looking at increasing horsepower at select tracks but no decisions have been made. “Our metrics when we look at the fan [surveys] and every one says we are trending in a very positive direction,” O’Donnell said. “Does that mean everything is great and we’ve stopped doing anything? No. I think you’ve seen us make some significant changes. We’ll continue to do that.” Driver Safety The family of NASCAR Hall of Fame driver Fred Lorenzen recently revealed the results of a study of his brain and it came back that he suffered from CTE. When asked about what is NASCAR’s role in the study and treatment of former drivers, O’Donnell shifted to talking about current safety measures and said their doctors have studied the effects of concussions. “It’s important to first acknowledge that we’re in a dangerous sport, and I think if you look at every sport, one of the top narratives would be around concussions and what is everyone doing,” O’Donnell said. “This is not new to NASCAR in terms of is this the first time we’ve looked at it. We have a number of doctors that have studied this. We have partnerships with Wake Forest and other universities that have worked together. This has been a focus for us for a long, long time. I am incredibly confident in the doctors that we have.”