Ever since Steve O’Donnell took over as NASCAR’s CEO from his earlier position of COO, he has been all about bringing new eyes to the sport. With that mission in mind, O'Donnell arrived in Washington, D.C., for the Freedom 250 State Fair last week, where he met members of the Trump administration.

FOX Sports' Bob Pockrass reported that O’Donnell spoke on a panel that featured team owner Richard Childress, driver Austin Dillon and Jim Campbell from Chevrolet. These individuals from the NASCAR world sat with Acting Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling and Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins. 

Pockrass wrote an article for FOX Sports, which included some of what the NASCAR CEO had to say. O’Donnell started with one of his signature lines, “For us, what we call it... I’ll apologize for saying this, but we’re a bad*** American sport.” According to the article, the audience responded with a resounding “Yeah, you are.”

After the panel, O’Donnell revealed why he was at the Freedom 250 State Fair. “I want everyone to know that NASCAR is open to all. Come out, sample the sport, see what it’s all about. And then the jobs exist outside of being a racecar driver, there’s so many opportunities to be in the sport.”

O’Donnell wasn’t only promoting NASCAR but motorsport in general. 

O’Donnell said, “It doesn’t have to be NASCAR. All forms of motorsport– IndyCar, NHRA, World Outlaws. All kinds of opportunities.”

While O’Donnell’s singular reason to be there for the event was linking up with people in the Trump administration and promoting the opportunities in NASCAR, Richard Childress was there for reasons beyond NASCAR.

Richard Childress: The man behind North Carolina at the fair

Steve O’Donnell also revealed to Pockrass that it was Richard Childress who invited him and asked him if he wanted to take part in an interaction with the Acting Secretary of Labor. 

While Childress invited O’Donnell, the RCR team owner was there of his own accord, having entered into a venture of producing military-grade equipment.

Childress was informed that North Carolina would not have any representation at the Freedom 250 State Fair, so he took matters into his own hands to set up a North Carolina exhibit with everything RCR and NASCAR, the biggest representation of North Carolina to him personally. 

Speaking to the Big Weekend Show he said, “We were told that North Carolina wasn’t going to have an exhibit, so we all put it together with the Freedom 250 group… You know, we’re just proud to be Americans. Everyone should be proud to be American.”

The exhibit featured an Austin Dillon 3 RCR Chevrolet car as well as a simulator, which reportedly had over 800 people waiting an hour in line to try their hands on a NASCAR simulator. 

Childress also opened up RCR Manufacturing Solutions in 2014 and is a partner with the likes of Lockheed Martin to make military-grade equipment and vehicles. 

Read more at the RFK Racing Digest!

Written by

Debrup Chaudhuri

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason