NASCAR Moving In The Right Direction For 2027 And Beyond
by racerx55 November 6, 2026 0 commentsStory by Patricia McCormack/TheFourthTurn.com
HOMESTEAD, Fla. – CEO of NASCAR, Steve O’Donnell, spoke on Friday during NASCAR Championship Weekend about the current status of NASCAR and what the future holds.
With a shift in leadership going into the Daytona 500 weekend back in February, O’Donnell was faced with making positive changes to the sport from all sides that started with instituting “Evergreen” charters that allows organizations to permanently own their charters within the NASCAR Cup Series.
“NASCAR has encouraging momentum, but we have work to do,” said O’Donnell, “I think you can see the improvements, the enthusiasm; certainly ready to go and celebrate a championship and welcome the fans back to Miami for that.”
Having NASCAR Championship Weekend return to Homestead-Miami Speedway being another one of those changes.
Many of the changes have brought on fan engagement and enrichment of the fan experience.
“We’re also seeing encouraging growth when we talk about attendance,” O’Donnell said. “I don’t want to hit you with all kinds of stats, but I think it’s important to point these out as we look at the 2026 season. Admissions are up 5 percent and attendance amongst kids 12 and under is up 12 percent. So we are seeing positive trends also as you look ahead.”
O’Donnell also recalled when NASCAR Chief Operating Officer Ben Kennedy went undercover as a fan earlier this season to see what the fans were experiencing while visiting races.
Another change that is still in the works, that we have seen recently with NASCAR competing in Mexico City, is the potential for NASCAR to compete on an international stage more frequently.
“In 2026, our Cup races aired in more than 185 countries in 25 languages,” O’Donnell said. “We had record-breaking attendance in our European Series events. 44,000 people show up in Czechia…and Mike Ford told me that it’s the first NASCAR reference of Czechia according to racing insights.”
On top of the European accolades, Brazil had their first female winner while Mexico welcomed three female drivers to their highest level of racing. NASCAR will return to Canada next year to the Canadian Tire Motorsports Park with the NASCAR FedEx Freight Truck Series with conversations about expanding to other countries.
On the other side of things, the 2026 season brought on other challenges such as hard impact incidents.
“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…I am incredibly confident in the doctors that we have with our drivers. They strap in each and every day knowing there’s a risk, but I think also, believing in the expertise we have at NASCAR that has surrounded each and every driver with the technology and how to continually get better.”
Compared to previous generations of race cars, NASCAR continues to find more ways to make the cars safer.
“I think there’s a lot for the entire industry to be proud of. Our teams and drivers have given us terrific competition. Fans are coming out to the racetrack. New brands are investing in the sport like never before. It’s been a long time since you’ve seen the activation from sponsors around our teams and drivers, which is terrific. The return of the Chase, at least in my opinion, has put the focus back where it belongs, on the performance week in and week out for the drivers.”
Photo Credit: Hunter Thomas/TheFourthTurn.com
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