Video: O’Donnell discusses decision to call Daytona race

Steve O'Donnell

Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR’s chief racing development officer, said that series officials hoped to run the final 33 laps of Sunday’s Cup race at Daytona International Speedway “but every indicator we had was that we weren’t going to be able to do that and kind of said enough is enough and for the safety and sake of everybody, unfortunately, had to call the race."

The result was that Justin Haley, who was leading when the race was halted at 3:18 p.m. ET for a lightning strike was declared the winner when NASCAR called the event at 5:30 p.m. ET because of rain.

O'Donnell talked with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio about the decision to call the Coke Zero Sugar 400 on Sunday evening.