re: 2026 NASCAR Season Thread

You are just arguing about a point no one really cares about just to argue

I hope you argent wasting much energy on this moot point

He could be a project 91 guy. IndyCar and sports cars.

Though his Indy career was awful.

Note: Nascar is brain dead and so out of touch when you read some of their comments and is why the sport is losing TV viewers every year (except NOAP). And keep in mind the method to track viewers is changed and actually increases viewers compared to old collection methods so real numbers are actually worse.

Jeff Gluck
@jeff_gluck

Steve O'Donnell is now beginning his annual NASCAR "State of the Sport" news conference. This is expected to last approximately one hour. Will thread key takeaways and quotes here.

O'Donnell describes the theme of 2026 for NASCAR as "encouraging momentum, but we have work to do."

The TV audience is "consistently strong." He says everyone has seen the numbers, but believes it's still good in the broader landscape and if it were a new sport, people would consider it a success story.

Attendance is up 5 percent and among kids (12 and under) it's up 12 percent this year.

Social media impressions are up 34 percent compared to last year.

Interest among 18-to-34-year-olds are the highest since 2013.

O'Donnell says there's a blueprint of five different pillars to help grow NASCAR and improve it:

-- Competition
-- Audience growth and engagement
-- Schedule and media strategy
-- International
-- At-track fan development

Re: Next Gen car, Steve O'Donnell says "the facts say short track racing in comparison to metrics over the last few years is at its highest level possible from positivity from our fans. So you may have different metrics, but our metrics when we look at the Fan Council and everyone say we are trending in a very positive direction. Does that mean you know everything's great and we we've stopped doing anything? No, I think you've seen us make some significant changes. We'll continue to do that."

Steve O'Donnell indicates a Gen 8 car is not on the horizon. He defended the Next Gen and said tweaks are likely but not a new car.

Because of the Next Gen, O'Donnell said, "You have many new owners that have come into the sport. You have an ownership landscape that is much healthier than it was before. You have Dodge entering the sport. You have other OEMs who are looking at it, and you have pretty good racing.

"The facts, when you look at those compared to other sports, are pretty strong. So I think it's important to look at what changes can you tweak along the way.

"But for us, we want a sustainable model for the industry, a Gen 8 or next gen car comes with all kinds of costs and all kinds of different things.

"So I'm confident in our guys and the industry and the OEMs to tweak what we have where necessary, but also be pretty confident in our drivers going out there and having the ability to go win races and put on some pretty darn good competition."

Re: O'Reilly Series, NASCAR is looking at how many parts and pieces are left to keep racing the current car and then trying to figure out how to move to the next model, but nothing decided yet.

O'Donnell notes the NASCAR viewership struggles head-to-head against the NFL, but he's not concerned about what it means for the sport bc there are other metrics that indicate momentum (especially pre-NFL season). In the future, that calendar is something they're looking at.

Re: championship rotation ... O'Donnell says "too soon to tell" on whether Homestead could have a long run as the season finale. Won't commit beyond next year, could still move the championship around.

O'Donnell says The CW has expressed interest in having midweek prime-time races for the O'Reilly Series.

I asked O'Donnell about Fontana. Why does NASCAR keep holding onto the property if they aren't doing anything with it?

"We keep holding on to it because it's an important market for us. It will be a real challenge if we could ever put a racetrack there, candidly.

"But we also recognize Southern California is an important market for us. So I don't have any update beyond that. Just that it's a focus for us to make sure, in some capacity, we're there. ... We've got to make sure that we've got somewhere to race (in Southern California)."

Steve O'Donnell speaks about Carson Hocevar: "There's some certainly some challenges, right? But I like what he brings to the fan base in terms of going out, meeting with fans, talking.

"Does he have some things to work on on track? Absolutely. We've talked about that, and we all know where that stands today.

"But I think if you look at licensed merchandise, engagement, fans are really hungry to embrace a driver, to find their driver. And the more drivers we can have (who) the fans say 'that's my favorite driver,' the better the sport will be."

O'Donnell again on TV viewership: "Yeah, we've got to focus on ratings. But the biggest thing that would be a success for all of us is we've got to find as many avenues as possible for people to find NASCAR. So if you're in New York or you're in Seattle, Washington, and you don't have a race, what is that entry point? And it may be a YouTube clip that you see that you say, 'Hey, this is pretty cool. What is this? I'm going to tune into that race.'"

Re: possible cost cap, O'Donnell says "nothing imminent" and all the teams aren't aligned on whether they want one.

"Having a cost cap is a big deal, but there's some debate from some of the owners about 'does this make sense?' It's costly to do that. It's very complicated. You talk to the folks at F1 about how many accountants they have to have at a team to make this happen.

"But it is true when you look across the pond at F1, it has helped from a team valuation standpoint. I don't have anything to announce today. I will say it is part of the discussions with the teams, but I would not say that everyone's aligned in terms of it happening."

quote:

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You are just arguing about a point no one really cares about just to argue

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Well idiot cares. I made comments and he chose to come into a thread he never posts in and be an a-hole. frick him

Sounds like more of the same:

More HP or more HP on 1.5 tracks? O'Donnell:

"John Probst would shoot me if I committed one way or the other, as would the OEMs." OD says 'ongoing discussions but no decision yet for next year,' and says there's a lot that goes into that from financial and parts reasons.

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And this comment is just tuning in to one side and tuning out the core customer. Its laughable he thinks its good racing:

O'Donnell says NextGen has 'pretty good racing' and that there's OEM interest, financial sustainability and ownership interest.

"We want a sustainable model for the industry, and a (Gen8) brings a lot of cost."

Wait, you said “I’m done” 5 posts ago lol. Sounds like you love to frick up threads. Thats childish behavior to solely come to a thread with intention of derailing it. Start calling posters names out of the blue because your pussy hurt. Hit and run poster. Never really say anything meaningful just a line or 2 of gotchas. You are definition of troll

Another note to show how out of touch they are. This is summertime there are no new shows

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The only caveat is we don’t want to kill short track racing in other series but an occasional midweek race would be fine in summer for Trucks/NOAP.

Correcting an obvious mistake is not a troll. You do you dude

Timmy Hill taking the Frankie Munez seat?

quote:

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The TV audience is "consistently strong." He says everyone has seen the numbers, but believes it's still good in the broader landscape and if it were a new sport, people would consider it a success story.

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But…it’s not a new sport…

It’s a sport that once trailed only the NFL in viewership. So, no, I wouldn’t look at these numbers as “successful.”