NASCAR CEO O'Donnell: $7.7 Billion Media Deal Sets Up 'Days of Thunder 2' Push

Summary

NASCAR CEO Steve O'Donnell told CNBC's Brian Sullivan the racing league has "a lot of momentum," crediting a five-network media footprint and the newly announced "Days of Thunder 2" film for widening its fan base. NASCAR's races and content run across Fox, Comcast's NBC, Versant's USA Network, Warner Bros. Discovery's TNT Sports and Amazon Prime Video under seven-year rights agreements reportedly worth $7.7 billion. O'Donnell, who became CEO in April after succeeding Jim France, also said the league is "absolutely" open to international expansion, though no locations or timeline have been set.

The Full Story

O'Donnell's core argument to CNBC was distributional, not just financial: spreading NASCAR across five networks and streaming services is a feature, not a fragmentation problem. "For us [it's] how many front doors can we give to a fan to come through and experience NASCAR, and we used to just be maybe on one or two networks," he said. That framing matters for how investors should read the $7.7 billion, seven-year rights figure — it isn't compensation for a single broadcast partner's exclusive product, it's the aggregate value NASCAR is extracting by licensing race windows separately to Fox, NBC, USA Network, TNT Sports and Amazon Prime Video simultaneously.

The second growth lever is cultural rather than contractual. "Days of Thunder 2," a Paramount sequel to the 1990 racing film, is set to premiere in summer 2028 with Tom Cruise reprising his role as driver Cole Trickle and Anne Hathaway co-starring. O'Donnell said Cruise recently visited NASCAR's Daytona Beach headquarters and was "enthusiastic," relaying Cruise's message that "you got to be ready because I'm going to put people [on], and they're going to know what NASCAR's about." The strategic logic pairs a broadcast-rights strategy built for reach with a tentpole film built for cultural relevance — the same two-pronged approach O'Donnell pointed to when discussing Formula 1's growth.

On expansion beyond the U.S. and Mexico, O'Donnell was directionally clear but operationally vague. He said NASCAR is weighing additional international race locations but wants brand awareness in place first: "I don't want to just export a race and plop it somewhere. We want to build the culture so that when you go to a race, if we're in Europe, you know, hey, that's the NASCAR experience." No country, city or date was named.

Structural Background: The F1 Playbook, Applied to Stock Cars

O'Donnell's comments explicitly invoke Formula 1's audience-building path — Netflix's "Drive to Survive" docuseries and Apple's 2025 "F1" film, which became Apple's highest-grossing movie to date. That comparison sets an implicit benchmark: media-plus-film crossover content has already proven it can convert casual viewers into recurring race fans in a motorsport context. "Ford v Ferrari," a 2019 biopic about racing history, is cited as one of that year's highest-grossing original films, reinforcing that motorsport-adjacent cinema has a track record of commercial pull independent of race-day ratings.

The distribution side of the strategy — five separate rights holders instead of one or two — is a deliberate bet that discovery matters more than convenience. It shifts risk: NASCAR collects fixed rights fees over the seven-year term regardless of how viewers distribute themselves across networks, while Fox, Comcast, Versant's USA Network, Warner Bros. Discovery and Amazon each bear the audience-acquisition cost on their own platforms.

Stock & Sector Ripple

• Fox Corp. (FOXA) — holds NASCAR race windows as part of its live-sports programming, a category central to Fox's ratings and affiliate/advertising economics.
• Comcast (CMCSA) — NBC carries NASCAR content under the same seven-year rights structure; live motorsport is a scarce, DVR-resistant asset for a broadcaster competing for ad dollars.
• Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) — TNT Sports' NASCAR window adds another live-sports property as the company manages its cable-to-streaming transition.
• Amazon (AMZN) — Prime Video's NASCAR rights fit its broader live-sports push, using marquee events to support Prime subscription retention.
• Paramount (PARA) — producing "Days of Thunder 2" for a summer 2028 release, a franchise bet that leans on Tom Cruise's box-office draw following the comparable success of Apple's "F1" in 2025.

Bull vs. Bear Scenarios

The bull case: a five-network footprint maximizes reach exactly when O'Donnell says NASCAR needs to "get younger" and meet fans "watching or just tuning in for a couple minutes." If "Days of Thunder 2" replicates even part of the audience-widening effect Apple's "F1" had in 2025, NASCAR heads into any future rights renewal with a larger, younger fan base — supporting the case that $7.7 billion in aggregate rights value understates NASCAR's next negotiating position.

The bear case centers on what's still unconfirmed. International expansion has no location, no timeline and no capital commitment attached — O'Donnell's "absolutely" was directional enthusiasm, not a plan. "Days of Thunder 2" doesn't premiere until summer 2028, leaving nearly two years before its audience effect, if any, is observable. And a five-network split, while framed as more "front doors," also means no single partner captures all the upside if ratings climb, diluting the read-through to any one stock.

Investor Action Points

• Track Paramount's marketing and casting updates for "Days of Thunder 2" as the summer 2028 premiere approaches, given the direct comparison O'Donnell drew to Apple's 2025 "F1" film.
• Watch for any NASCAR announcement naming a specific international race location or date — O'Donnell confirmed only that options are being weighed, not decided.
• Note that "Days of Thunder 2" and "Ford v Ferrari" both illustrate that motorsport-themed films can perform commercially independent of live-race viewership, a separate revenue channel from the $7.7 billion media-rights figure.
• Monitor Fox, Comcast, Warner Bros. Discovery and Amazon's live-sports commentary in coming earnings calls for any specific reference to NASCAR viewership trends under the current seven-year agreements.

FAQ

Has NASCAR chosen a country for international expansion? No. O'Donnell told CNBC the league is "absolutely" open to racing internationally and is weighing options, but said brand-building needs to happen first and named no specific location or date.

Who stars in "Days of Thunder 2"? Tom Cruise reprises his role as driver Cole Trickle, with Anne Hathaway co-starring, in the Paramount film slated for a summer 2028 premiere.

This article was independently written by OneDayTrading from public reporting. Read the original (CNBC)