Steve O'Donnell (born November 3, 1968) is an American motorsports executive. He currently serves as President of

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...

Early life

O'Donnell was born in New Jersey and was raised in Massachusetts. As a teenager, he and his family lived in Egypt near Cairo. O'Donnell graduated from

Rollins College Rollins College is a Liberal arts college, private liberal arts college in Winter Park, Florida. It was founded in November 1885 and has about 30 undergraduate majors and several master's programs. Florida's fourth oldest post-secondary institut ...

in 1991. He then worked for a communications company before joining the

Daytona Cubs Daytona may refer to: Locations * Daytona Beach, Florida * Daytona Beach Shores, Florida * South Daytona, Florida * The Daytona Beach metropolitan area * Halifax area, also known as Daytona, the region around Daytona Beach Motor racing * Day ...

and later the

Florida Citrus Bowl Camping World Stadium is an outdoor stadium in Orlando, Florida, United States located in the West Lakes neighborhood of Downtown Orlando, west of new sports and entertainment facilities including the Kia Center, the Dr. Phillips Center for t ...

NASCAR

O'Donnell joined NASCAR in 1996 as part of the marketing department. Part of his role involved handing out hats in victory lane and placing sponsor products on the winning car for victory lane ceremonies. He was heavily involved in the planning and promotion of NASCAR's 50th Anniversary celebration in 1998. O'Donnell was named Managing Director of Events and Operations of NASCAR's weekly racing series and his job involved traveling to the many local short tracks. He was soon promoted to Vice President of Racing Operations for the national series. In 2014, O'Donnell was promoted to Chief Racing Development Officer. He was credited with implementing the NASCAR Playoff System in the top-three series, the creation of stage racing in 2017, and the development of the Next Gen car in 2022. In March 2022, O'Donnell was named Chief Operating Officer of NASCAR. In March 2025, O’Donnell was promoted to President of NASCAR.

Personal life

O'Donnell is married. The couple have a son and a daughter.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:ODonnell, Steve 1968 births American motorsport people Auto racing executives American businesspeople Rollins College alumni NASCAR people Businesspeople from New Jersey Living people