NASCAR’s Steve O’Donnell Riles Up Fans As He Lets Slip The Sanctioning Body’s AI Exploration

Technology is ever-evolving in today’s world and the biggest example of that today is artificial intelligence. A couple of decades ago, AI must have felt like an impossible feat, but today, the world runs on it. NASCAR is no different. The sport has done a great job of keeping up with the times in its long history and going into the mid-2020s, COO Steve O’Donnell believes that the future is AI. However, fans do not agree.

NASCAR has already gone into the AI world with traditional artificial intelligence software helping it out. For example, it has had a deal with WCS Sports for a while now to automatically generate race highlights. They also have a deal with Satisfi Labs to feature an AI-powered chat function. The company, with the help of OpenAI’s GPT and Google’s PaLM, created an enhanced platform last year as per Sports Business Journal.

AI will be used to improve fan experience, says Steve O’Donnell

According to a recent report in SBJ, NASCAR COO Steve O’Donnell said that the company has a team that is dedicated to learning about artificial intelligence and how that can be used to improve fan experience. For a spectator sport, there is no one more important than the fans and it is commendable that the stock car racing organizing body is taking various avenues to ensure the main stakeholders are satisfied.

The sport has several big competitors in terms of viewership and financials, not just in the States, but around the whole world. So there is little choice but to pull all the stops to gain even the slightest advantage over competitors. O’Donnell also said that AI would help work with sponsors as well.

“For us, we’ve got a dedicated group solely focused on AI and emerging technologies, so I think there’s an incredible amount of learning for us to do in the sport and especially on, ‘How we can enhance the fan experience?’” he said as per Sports Business Journal.

“There’s so many avenues that we’re going to explore but we want to take it one step at a time and do it right. But you want to be on the forefront of AI working with sponsors, but ultimately making it a better fan experience,” O’Donnell added.

While it all sounds very impressive on paper, fans certianly did not agree. It is commendable that NASCAR is trying to improve fan experience through AI. But the fact is that they need to get a lot of basic things right, which would also improve the experience, according to a majority of opinions on Twitter-verse.

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One user commented that one of the most basic things that NASCAR has not been able to do yet is install WiFi at the tracks. They urged the organizers to get that done before fiddling around with artificial intelligence. “How about we start with some wifi at the track first,” they commented.

Another user believes that the thing that will make racing fans’ experience better is more racing action. They suggested that there should be more and longer practice sessions before races.

“Then give us more practice enough of the owners don’t want it bs give us 2 50 minute practices for every race weekend with 4 or more practices for the Daytona 500 all 50 minutes,” they quipped.

Some people outright slammed the decision, stating that NASCAR has not been able to improve the fan experience for years, only making it worse. “”a better fan experience” NASCAR has been for years making the fan experience worse,” one fan commented.

“We are screwed,” quipped another. There were some sarcastic remarks about the news as well. One fan commented, “NASCAR – “We listened to the AI, and the AI has spoken loud & clear… That’s why in 2026 we’re introducing the new [connect four] championship system.””

Regardless, it will be interesting to see how the organizers deal with AI in the future. Do you think it will be successful? Let us know your thoughts.

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