Before the season finale for NASCAR this weekend at Phoenix Raceway, President Steve Phelps and chief operating officer Steve O’Donnell held a press conference regarding the current state of the sport.
The topic of officiating has been a hot topic for NASCAR fans in 2024, and it’s something they want to see improved next season, with races run more consistently. O’Donnell addressed the comment head-on, explaining why he thinks motorsport officials face unique challenges that other sports don’t see.
“We’ve faced some tough challenges throughout the year, but I will say about our group, especially those who officiate every weekend, there is no tougher sport to officiate,” O’Donnell said. “We don’t have any downtime. We don’t wait during the action. Cars are going 200 miles an hour. You have to make split-second decisions. We don’t always make the right decisions, but for the most part we do, and what I’m most proud of is that we come, we talk to the media, we’re transparent on every call we make.
“When there’s a challenge, or when we can learn from something, we’re going to do it and we’re going to make adjustments, like we always have. I can tell you, I’ve been here almost 30 years, and every race you probably see something different. It’s our job to react to that and come up with a new rule, or a new policy, that we need to go for.”
O’Donnell makes a good point. There are bad calls made in the NFL week after week, and while fans can hold the referees to the fire, it’s not like they have a press conference afterwards. It’s an idea O’Donnell brought home, comparing NASCAR to other popular sports when it comes to officiating.
“Can you name a sport where there are no officiating questions throughout the year, right? So, absolutely, we – every year we answer them,” O’Donnell added. “I think a lot of it has to do with technology, right? And a lot of it has to do with the formats that you’re looking at, and different things that come into play now. So, you know, one of the biggest ones that we saw, you know, consistently, was the damaged vehicle policy. You know, in trying, through no real fault, to save the industry money, we created a challenge, in terms of how we were operating. So that’s something. something we want to continue to investigate.
“I think one of the most important things you want to do is how do you continue to use technology in real time, to notice what may or may not be happening on the track and fix that problem as quickly as possible. I don’t believe we have a refereeing problem at all. I think we have the best and brightest in the business. Yes, we make mistakes. They’re humans. I hope we never get to just AI making calls. But we will make mistakes. adjustments.”
“I think if me, John, Elton or Steve don’t talk before the Daytona 500 about the adjustments we’ve made, then we haven’t done our job, because that’s what we always do in the off-season.
Clearly, Steve O’Donnell recognizes that there may be more than meets the eye when it comes to the perceived officiating problem in NASCAR, and they are going to re-evaluate everything. It remains to be seen what changes will be made for 2025, but it is clear that nothing is ruled out at the moment.
