Back in October 2024, 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports filed a federal lawsuit against NASCAR, accusing the league of monopolizing the sport. As they continue their battle in the courtroom, the latest report reveals that NASCAR President Steve O’Donnell’s emails and chats have been presented as evidence. It would seem that O’Donnell is not a huge fan of Jay Monahan and his management of the PGA Tour, it seems.

Josh Carpenter shared screenshots of one of the NASCAR President’s emails and WhatsApp conversations. He revealed in the caption, “Interesting message from NASCAR’s Steve O’Donnell that surfaced as part of discovery in the 23XI/FRM lawsuit. Several references to PGAT and how it dealt with LIV. This is from 2022 and was to Ben Kennedy, a top NASCAR exec. ‘I just watched Monahan’s press conference. I don’t ever want to see you in that position.'”

The dialogue is clear in its implications. O’Donnell seems to believe that Monahan doesn’t manage the PGA Tour well.

During the launch of LIV Golf, Jay Monahan & the PGA Tour partly went into panic mode and rushed into a lot of changes. The implementation of Signature events, the change of the season calendar, and wayward slow-play policies were just some of them.

That allowed LIV Golf to gain some viewers and also sign a few players. At the end of their second season, Greg Norman & Co. were also able to convince Jon Rahm to join the roster, despite Monahan’s best attempts. O’Donnell doesn’t want to be put in a similar position when dealing with 23XI and FRM.

In his email, he suggested a few possibilities NASCAR can pursue to grow financially and as a marketable league:

• “Private equity who does not care about a short term return.”
• “Saudi or some other entity who doesn’t care at all if business model even makes sense.”
• “Mid week series at short tracks run by teams-new cars.”
• “International business made by teams from November thru January that essentially takes our entire international future portfolio.”
• “Private equity purchase of sm (Spire Motorsports).”

He also advised his team to recommend the best plans that will secure the business for the next 15 years. It certainly seems like Steve O’Donnell is enthusiastic about the future of NASCAR. But how does it contradict what Jay Monahan produced during his stint?

Did Jay Monahan not plan for the PGA’s long-term future?

Throughout his regime, Jay Monahan has certainly made a lot of changes in the PGA Tour. While his stint as the commissioner might not have been that memorable, he didn’t do anything particularly wrong before LIV Golf came into existence.

However, ever since the Saudi-based promotion has launched, Monahan and his team have been quite reactive about their strategic approach. Many of the players would also claim that he has been a bit shortsighted. One of them is Lucas Glover, who specifically talked about the PGA Tour commissioner’s plans to reduce the field in 2026.

Glover said, “Limiting players doesn’t help competition. We’re the only sport that decreased the number of teams or players; every other sport has expanded their playoffs or expanded their fields. We are doing the opposite. The Tour’s job description is to do what’s right for the membership, not a few members.” Jay Monahan’s regressive approach took others by surprise as well, including Viktor Hovland, Matt Fitzpatrick, and Erik van Rooyen.

They too had similar views as Glover about the change of field size. So does that mean the NASCAR President, Steve O’Donnell’s views about the outgoing PGA Tour commissioner are accurate then?