Confirming NASCAR is leaning toward tweaking its Cup Series Playoffs, chief operating officer Steve O’Donnell said it’s a virtual certainty that the location of the title race will change.
During the inaugural episode of the new “Hauler Talk” podcast, O’Donnell discussed the deep dive into the playoffs that NASCAR is taking this year with an industrywide committee, highlighting a rotation of the championship as an integral part of the conversation.
“It’s more complicated than just waving a checkered flag and say, ‘Let’s move the championship,’ but I do think a rotation is going to be really important for us,” O’Donnell said. “If (a driver has) won 45 Phoenix races in a row and the championship is there, it’s probably not a good look for the sport, right? And we’ve had a good mixture (of champions at Phoenix). But I think a rotation is what the fans would like.
“College football and the NFL (have) that rotation (of championship games) and anticipation of a new venue. I think you’ll see that with NASCAR as well.”
What tracks are on the title rotation wish list?
O’Donnell essentially ruled out superspeedways (which lack support from drivers and teams) and added that road and street courses “might be a little tough.” That leaves short tracks and intermediates as fair game – and not necessarily just those that are in warm-weather destinations in the fall.
O’Donnell said the success of the Cook Out Clash with winter temperatures in the 40s at Bowman Gray Stadium proved that “people will show up if it’s exciting enough and it’s not snow and rain.”
“Wherever we can put on a great race,” he said. “I think any oval where we can pull it off. The biggest thing for us is having the championship atmosphere around that community as well. It’s one thing to have a race, but you need passionate race fans, you need a sold-out venue and you need the community to embrace it. I think there’s a lot of opportunities for us in a lot of different places to look at that.”
There also has been speculation about the future site of The Clash, which raced at a sold-out Bowman Gray as its third venue in the past five years. O’Donnell hopes there will be a second consecutive year in Winston-Salem, North Carolina (“I’d like to see us go back there in 2026 and reward the fans who showed up”) but said NASCAR might have two primary options for its Clash tracks after that.
“You could go international or you could use that same model of going to a short track in the U.S.,” O’Donnell said. “Where NASCAR comes in, rewards that track and their competitors for what they’re doing and makes some upgrades to the facility that we leave for the next generation of racers. And then we stay for a little bit and move on to the next one. So I think a combination of both of those would be really cool. I really like the idea of NASCAR coming in and investing in the short tracks.”
The future of The Clash will be determined through collaborative deliberation, just like the potential playoff changes for the 2026 season.
NASCAR is forming a working group that will include drivers, team owners, manufacturer representatives, media and fans to beat up ideas in a manner similar to the industry committee that produced stage racing and playoff points introduced in 2017.
O’Donnell said everything is on the table for the playoffs, from points format to the race track lineup to how the rounds are structured (such as determining the champion over multiple races).
“We may end up exactly where we are, but I don’t think so,” he said. “I think there’ll be some tweaks that we look at that we can improve upon. There’s a lot of different variables to look at to make sure we’re crowning the drivers who win and are up on the wheel, and we can tell a story that they’re deserving of being a NASCAR champion.”
In light of Chase Elliott’s recent proclamation that “I’m not sure there’s a more important decision that we can make in just how we crown our champion every year and making sure that we’re not ever doing that the wrong way,” O’Donnell said legitimacy would be stressed in the discussions.
“I still stand by Joey Logano as a three-time champion, but we want to take a look at how we can balance that,” he said. “So that the Kyle Larsons of the world feel like this is a place I want to race for the rest of my career because If I’m up on the wheel and I’m winning, I’m going to be rewarded for that.”
During the debut of the Hauler Talk podcast, which will explore competition issues in NASCAR with Mike Forde and Amanda Ellis of the communications department, O’Donnell also discussed:
— His upbringing in the Middle East and how it impacted his worldview and as an adjudicator of disputes in NASCAR;
— The emotions of being in the scoring tower;
— The nuances of NASCAR listening to everyone’s opinions without agreeing with all of them.