O'Donnell discusses potential for three consecutive short-track races
As NASCAR prepares for its third short-track race in four weeks at Richmond International Raceway (Saturday, 7 p.m. ET, FOX), NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O'Donnell talked with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio about whether NASCAR would ever run the three races consecutively, similar to the NASCAR Goes West swing.
"The difference when you look out west is you've got a little bit more space in between with Vegas, Phoenix and California," O'Donnell said. "When you look at Bristol, Martinsville and Richmond, all really in a pretty small area, all have great capacity crowds and great interest.
"It's something we look at, but we're pretty happy right now where we're at. We'll see how these two work back to back and talk to the tracks. This was a new schedule for us so it's still in the early stages, but we'll talk to the tracks as we get through the first half of the season and see what they may want to look at for 2016."
Speaking of next season's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series slate, O'Donnell noted the work began last year in setting the 2016 schedule. As the sanctioning body continues to receive feedback, the next few weeks will help determine the plan for next year's race dates.
"Each year, we try and map out, if we can, what we'd like to see three and five years out potentially, so we're in the beginning phases of having that discussion with the tracks," O'Donnell said. "The good news is a lot of folks so far -- we're only eight races in -- but they like what they've seen from a track perspective so we'll continue on.
"Usually around the next two weeks, we sit down with the tracks and have those discussions ultimately with the third quarter of the year wanting to get the schedules out."
For now, NASCAR's sights are set on Richmond, which has seen a recent streak of different drivers heading to Victory Lane, and it will host the second Sprint Cup start for Chase Elliott, the reigning XFINITY Series champion.
"The fans have been pretty vocal, liking this short-track action back to back," O'Donnell said. "We've seen six different winners in the past six races at Richmond. Obviously a great place, a great action track.
"Chase Elliott is making his second career (Sprint Cup) start. The XFINITY Series continues to show some young talent with Daniel Suarez finishing second this past weekend. Richmond tends to put on some great racing each and every night so we're looking forward to some more great short-track action."
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