New NASCAR CEO makes simple vow after replacing – Sports News
Steve O’Donnell needs to convey the (Image: Getty)
Newly-appointed NASCAR CEO Steve O’Donnell needs to convey more pleasure to the neighborhood after replacing Jim France, and plans to talk with people inside the industry earlier than implementing his adjustments.
After changing into NASCAR CEO in 2018, France introduced he would step away from his function however stay as chairman, whereas retaining his majority stake within the company. O’Donnell is now the primary NASCAR CEO outdoors of the France household within the group’s historical past.
While France was revered within the NASCAR circuit, O’Donnell believes that some of the enjoyable has been drained over the previous few years, and desires to revive it. O’Donnell was solely promoted to NASCAR president on March 31, 2025, and plans to go away his mark after making one other hierarchy leap.
O’Donnell spoke to reporters after formally being named CEO on Saturday and was requested about his strategy shifting ahead. “I think it would be a bit presumptuous of me to come in right away and say, ‘here’s the plan,'” O’Donnell mentioned.
“What I’m going to do is go out and do a lot of listening, especially the first 90 days. We’ve got so many talented people in the industry — team owners, drivers, track, sponsors, even our own internal personnel that I want to go have some conversations with about what do they see and what are the opportunities?
O’Donnell replaced Jim France as CEO but the latter remains chairman (Image: Getty)
“I feel the great information is, we’ve received an unbelievable basis, proper? We’ve received a great broadcast deal. We’ve received charters in place, a robust schedule. So all these nuts and bolts are there, and it’s actually taking that and how can we make NASCAR an absolute must-have sport sooner or later.”
O’Donnell then made a simpler promise, adding, “We’re going to make some strikes and have some enjoyable. I feel we misplaced that over the previous couple of years.”
While O’Donnell wants to speak with industry professionals before making any drastic changes, he believes he can make an impact during the ongoing season.
“There’s actually issues we will all the time improve on, however for me, I take a look at this season as the beginning of that basis, of sort of that subsequent era of NASCAR, and that basis is de facto stable,” O’Donnell added.
“So I feel it provides us the chance proper now to go discuss concerning the future. From time to time, we get caught in sort of the everyday, and I feel all of us acknowledge proper now that we’ve a actually good factor that we will construct on, however let’s speak about what does it seem like 5 years from now and make these adjustments, as a result of it’s going to take time.
“We’re going to need everyone to be aligned, and so now’s the time to say, all right, we’ve got a good thing going here in the first quarter. Let’s get through this year, let’s not take anything for granted, but let’s really think about where we want to be in 2030 and beyond.”
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