NASCAR responds to Kevin Harvick 'stagnant' schedule comments Executive vice president Steve O'Donnell cites key factors in keeping current lineup

Jeff Gluck | USA TODAY Sports

CHARLOTTE – Despite Kevin Harvick's concerns about NASCAR's schedule becoming "stagnant," NASCAR executive vice president Steve O'Donnell said officials remain comfortable with the current calendar.

"We're happy with the schedule we have," O'Donnell said Tuesday. "We certainly look at what's available to us, but the schedule we have in place, I think the tracks are doing a tremendous job of helping to promote the sport.

"We certainly have dialogue with Kevin and everyone's got an opinion on the schedule."

Harvick, who has frequently made it clear he believes NASCAR should shake up the calendar to visit different markets, had some strong comments about the current lineup of tracks Friday.

"You can beat a dead horse as much as you want, but it doesn't come back to life," Harvick said of the schedule. "Sometimes you just have to change things up to keep the excitement and the enthusiasm in our sport, and I think our schedule is definitely the weak link along with some of the venues we go to."​

But O'Donnell said there were "so many factors" including weather and a track's position on the schedule, that made officials "comfortable" with the current calendar.

O'Donnell spoke to reporters after NASCAR unveiled its NASCAR Next lineup for 2015-16, a roster which includes Chili Bowl winner Rico Abreu, Joe Nemechek's son John Hunter Nemechek and Jeff Gordon's cousin James Bickford.

Among the other topics O'Donnell addressed:

-- Officials opted not to use the 2016 rules package for the upcoming Sprint All-Star Race as originally planned because the rules are still being developed.

"To go down a path we still felt like potentially needed testing, we didn't feel that was the right thing to do, to put essentially a test out there for a big race on our schedule," he said. "We elected to stay where we're at and continue to monitor the racing under this package."

-- The 2016 rules package was expected to be dramatically different than in 2015, but that may no longer be the case. O'Donnell said NASCAR is "looking at a number of different options for '16, including staying where we are."

He acknowledged some teams have pushed back on having to spend more money to prepare for another rules change after significant adjustments in each of the past few years.

"I think it's all over the board," he said. "Some of the drivers would say they'd like to pursue a different direction. Some like it as is who have had success.

"From an owner's standpoint, we've certainly got to manage what we're looking at for '15, '16 and manage constantly putting new rules in front of them."

-- O'Donnell declined to offer a grade for the quality of racing so far in 2015, but said it was "encouraging" that the number of green-flag passes were up at some venues. He also said it was a "good trend" to have eight different drivers win in the first 10 races.

"The ability to go out there and win – when there are eight different winners in 10 races, that's pretty good for the sport," he said.

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