NASCAR CEO Steve O'Donnell has just addressed the growing fan frustration over the sport's fragmented broadcasting landscape. He admitted the league must improve how it directs fans to various streaming and cable platforms. The admission comes as NASCAR expands its digital footprint through new partnerships with ESPN and Amazon.

O'Donnell recently made an appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, where he spoke about how they need to make the races even more accessible to the fans.

“You know our job is we got to do a much better job giving the message: Where can you find the races? Make them as accessible as possible, and then as we look at future broadcast packages, making sure we do that in a smart way… We want the fans to be able to find it, enjoy it, and get to know the sport we all love,” O’Donnell said.

O'Donnell further mentioned how they strategically made those decisions, keeping the demographics and their choices in mind. For instance, he mentioned that the reason for pushing Amazon was that 70 percent of their fanbase already had it. In the case of Fox, he stated that it will become a part of future streaming platforms.

The latest to join them is ESPN, which has recently returned after a 12-year gap to become the streaming home for The CW Sports, specifically for the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series.

However, with the introduction of the new streaming platforms, the fans complained about the races being split across all the platforms. Some of the platforms no longer provide free practice and qualifying sessions, but the fans have to pay a separate subscription fee for the same.

Last year, when NASCAR penned the contract with Amazon to stream the races, the concern was whether the platform would face the same negative reputation as that of its predecessors. 

When Dale Earnhardt Jr. spoke about NASCAR on Amazon's criticism

In 2025, Amazon signed with NASCAR to make the races more accessible to the fans. The question that arose was whether the platform receives the same amount of criticism as the other networks that are broadcasting the race.

Dale Jr. spoke about the same during his appearance on Rubbin is Racing, where he was questioned if he expected NASCAR on Amazon Prime Video to get a bad reputation.

“Oh yeah. It’s whoever is doing the races at the time, that’s the people that are gonna get the criticism. As soon as NBC would pick up the broadcast, everybody would go, ‘Man, I can’t wait until Fox is doing it again!’ It just kind of comes with the territory.” 

During that season, Amazon broadcast only five races. It was met with mixed views. It is yet to be seen how the fans will receive the platform's second race broadcast later this season.

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Written by

Chionia Libania Colaco

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason