EXCLUSIVE: Steve O’Donnell on Carson Hocevar vs. Ryan Blaney, The Chase Return & NASCAR's Future

The best part to me, I've known you for a long time.

We've known each other for a long time.

And, you know, I think that good, bad, we always wind up in a good spot.

We might be mad at each other for a little while, but I mean, to me, that's healthy.

To be able to, for me to always be able to voice my opinion to you might make you mad and you do the same to me.

But since you have taken over this whole thing, we have seen some quick reactions.

And I think whether it's the spoiler in the car rules at Daytona, the caution rules, whatever it...

I mean, there's been a lot of things that have piled up into those decisions.

Has that been something that you guys have talked about internally? And I think that initially everybody was like, oh, they did it the first time.

And so how has that... gone over because I know with the charter systems and the teams, it can be a struggle.

How has the whole garage perceived that?

Yeah, I think it's a great question.

You know, I'd start off with that.

I think we've got a really good team, right? So it's easy to try and make some quicker decisions when you feel like the right information and the team can execute it.

But it's also going out and yeah, I've been on a listening tour, but I think what I've learned from that is a lot of good ideas.

You can listen to all those.

That doesn't mean you're going to agree with everything, but you can at least get enough input.

And when you've got a number of people saying, what are we waiting for? Let's make these moves.

You know, you can execute it.

You also know you're not always going to be right, but we'll undo that.

And I think, you know, we're going to move quick.

I've told everybody, you know, we're talking about where we want to go in the future, but we've got to go and we've got some momentum but the worst thing we could do is just kind of sit around and say hey things are things are trending good we got to be true to who we are i think we got away from that in the past but if you're making decisions and you know i've learned a lot from you kevin if you're making decisions that people believe yeah that that's nascar and and they're moving in that direction i think we're going to be winning

The best part to me, I've known you for a long time.

We've known each other for a long time.

And, you know, I think that good, bad, we always wind up in a good spot.

We might be mad at each other for a little while, but I mean, to me, that's healthy.

To be able to, for me to always be able to voice my opinion to you might make you mad and you do the same to me.

But since you have taken over this whole thing, we have seen some quick reactions.

And I think whether it's the spoiler in the car rules at Daytona, the caution rules, whatever it...

I mean, there's been a lot of things that have piled up into those decisions.

Has that been something that you guys have talked about internally? And I think that initially everybody was like, oh, they did it the first time.

And so how has that... gone over because I know with the charter systems and the teams, it can be a struggle.

How has the whole garage perceived that?

Yeah, I think it's a great question.

You know, I'd start off with that.

I think we've got a really good team, right? So it's easy to try and make some quicker decisions when you feel like the right information and the team can execute it.

But it's also going out and yeah, I've been on a listening tour, but I think what I've learned from that is a lot of good ideas.

You can listen to all those.

That doesn't mean you're going to agree with everything, but you can at least get enough input.

And when you've got a number of people saying, what are we waiting for? Let's make these moves.

You know, you can execute it.

You also know you're not always going to be right, but we'll undo that.

And I think, you know, we're going to move quick.

I've told everybody, you know, we're talking about where we want to go in the future, but we've got to go and we've got some momentum but the worst thing we could do is just kind of sit around and say hey things are things are trending good we got to be true to who we are i think we got away from that in the past but if you're making decisions and you know i've learned a lot from you kevin if you're making decisions that people believe yeah that that's nascar and and they're moving in that direction i think we're going to be winning