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NASCAR CEO Steve O’Donnell said Friday that NASCAR plans to keep tweaking the Next Gen car rather than move to a new Gen-8 car, pointing to the cost of a new car and the health of the sport’s ownership landscape.
O’Donnell spoke with reporters at Homestead-Miami Speedway ahead of championship weekend. He also said NASCAR is still deciding what car the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series will race in the future.
O’Donnell: ‘Why we went to this car’
“Well, let’s look at this industry and why we went to this car,” O’Donnell said. “We were on a pathway where there was very limited ownership. Teams were car manufacturers. There were no new OEMs that came into the sport. There were no conversations. In fact, it was the opposite of, ‘If you guys don’t do anything, we’re not sure this is sustainable.’”
“You have a different model. 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.”
“But for us, we want a sustainable model for the industry. And a Gen-8 or a 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.”
The O’Reilly car
The current O’Reilly Series car platform is more than 15 years old, and the parts to keep it running are a concern.
O’Donnell said Tyler Reddick told him that “if you put me and the top 10 Cup drivers in that series, it’s gonna look like Sunday as well.”
“What do we wanna race in that series going forward? So John (Probst) and the team are looking at, you know, where are the parts and pieces? How long can we sustain that? And then what’s the right move with whatever model we choose that can be an economical model that works for the car owners, the drivers, and ultimately helps grow the fandom,” O’Donnell said.
“So a lot of work being done, I’d say over the last two years, they’ve had conversations with the teams. No direct answer yet, but there’s a lot of work and a lot of investment, candidly, that’s been made into that future as well.”
Other changes for 2027
Probst said Friday that NASCAR will set lineups by owner points when qualifying is canceled next year, as Pit This Time reported.
The O’Reilly Series championship race is Saturday at 5 p.m. ET on The CW, and the Cup finale is Sunday at 3 p.m. ET on NBC.
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