LUKE honorary pace car driver 4 tonight's Sprint All Star race

[AppStatePanther]

What is doing more work, the person or the car? Hell, horse racing is more physically demanding than nascar.

The people who have the knowledge to put these cars to the ultimate test multiple times every week. They do more work. I don't consider them athletes but why do they need to be in order to respect what they do.

[AppStatePanther]

Not a hate parade because I used to be a fan but any sport where the announcers, participants, and executives have to constantly justify, remind, and emphasize to the audience that the participants are athletes tells me something. Just go race and shut the fug up. Quit changing the rules every week. Quit messing with the equipment. Quit switching start times. Quit with the 2 hours of pre-race bullshit. Quit canceling races at the tracks that made NASCAR what it was in the early 90's. Hey NASCAR, you are not and will never be the NFL so just race and forget all the bullshit you try to do for the casual fan. The casual fan has long gone. Return to your roots or suffer the consequences and keep trying to blow smoke about your drivers being amazing athletes.

right on, quit out pricing your audience too.

[SCP]

The people who have the knowledge to put these cars to the ultimate test multiple times every week. They do more work. I don't consider them athletes but why do they need to be in order to respect what they do.

I respect the brains and the engineering that goes into it. I love going to races. I enjoy watching the races. But the whole package is a joke anymore. DW's antics are stupid and it's like he and McReynolds are trying to sound country/ southern or something. The bogus yellow flags to try and enhance the bad racing is another issue.

[Zod]

The people who have the knowledge to put these cars to the ultimate test multiple times every week. They do more work. I don't consider them athletes but why do they need to be in order to respect what they do.

 

I didn't say I didn't respect what they do. I just said they are not athletes and its not a sport.

[Zod]

I respect the brains and the engineering that goes into it. I love going to races. I enjoy watching the races. But the whole package is a joke anymore.

 

I know a few of the pit guys. Some of them are definitely athletes. Big strong dudes.

[SCP]

I know a few of the pit guys. Some of them are definitely athletes. Big strong dudes.

I agree, and they train year round and their job is dangerous. But to call somebody like Jimmy Spencer, Joey Lagano or Tony Stewart an athlete is like calling me a porn star.

[AppStatePanther]

I bet you would be considered a porn star in a German scheize video.

[UpstatePanther]

Wonder what modifications they made for the car to fit an actual athlete

Sent from the Carolina Huddle App

 

drivers deal with 2+ times the force of gravity, depending on the banking of the curves of the track, twice to three times per lap for 325-500 laps. this can be 3-4 hours worth of time. many drivers do this on an empty stomach, and many drivers have done this while sick. i'd love to see your average, non-athletic person try that without complaining. sometimes in a race, drivers can experience many more than 2 times the force of gravity. Jeff Gordon experienced 64Gs crashing at Pocono in 2006. while crashes this powerful are rare, crashes DO happen all the time in NASCAR. to be fair, the tough sport we all love, American Football, regularly sees 100G impacts, some going as high as 150Gs. 

 

what about the pit crew, an essential part of EVERY race team? consider this quote: "There's a good reason why many former football and hockey players are now pitting NASCAR teams - pit crews train as hard as any other athletes in any other sport. They must jack up half of their 3400-pound car, change four tires, add 22 gallons of Sunoco fuel to the fuel tank, and make no mistakes over the span of 15 seconds"... i will only add that a pit crew must be prepared to do this 6+ times in that 3 hour span, depending on how many pit stops are needed. 

 

aside from G forces, what are conditions like inside the car? the temperature regularly reaches and stays at 120 degrees during a race. the vehicle, as mentioned earlier, is 3400 pounds heavy. try maneuvering that (even only turning left in most races) at between 150 and 210 mph for 3-4 hours with 42 other drivers inches from you the whole time doing the same thing. drivers require special training off the track to deal with the lack of oxygen in a stock car, and even during the race, most still use a breathing apparatus to ensure they get the oxygen needed to endure the temp, Gs, and sheer physical exertion. 

 

like any athlete, NASCAR drivers must also have a nutrition and rest regimen. failure to do so doesnt simply result in a lack of desired effort in NASCAR, it can be dangerous and possibly fatal. the driver deals with enough possibly disorienting circumstances with the G forces, carbon monoxide fumes, and exertion for steering and breaking. couple that with a lack of adequate rest and general nutrition? its recipe for disaster on a NASCAR racetrack. 

 

Merriam-Webster defines "sport" as "a contest of game in which people do certain physical activities according to a specific set of rules and compete against each other" and "a physical activity... done for enjoyment". i'll venture to say that both definitions are necessary to classify an activity as professional sport. NASCAR meets both definitions and is therefore, a sport. 

 

perhaps these men and women arent the same caliber or type athlete as an NFL player. but are NFL players the same type of athletes or even the same caliber as NBA players? or MLB player? no. not generally. NASCAR drivers are simply another type of athlete. they are athletes, but their training is suited more for their sport, just like any professional athlete has trained to suit his/her particular sport.

 

oh and if you still doubt... how about Riverboat Ron going to talk to six time champion crew chief Chad Knaus about winning? Riverboat believes NASCAR is a sport enough to go talk to the champ's crew chief. thats good enough for me. :)

 

basic info: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/34488-once-and-for-all-why-nascar-is-a-sport

NASCAR track banking physics: http://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/everyday-myths/question633.htm

NASCAR race lap amounts: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NASCAR_tracks

G forces exerted in a NFL tackle: http://www.popularmechanics.com/outdoors/sports/physics/4212171

conditions inside a stock car, and NASCAR driver training regimen: http://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/41247/recreation_and_sports/nascar___the_drivers_physical_conditioning.html

[AppStatePanther]

I didn't say I didn't respect what they do. I just said they are not athletes and its not a sport.

sport is a very broad term. There's sport fishing and the thing where the hounds chase the fox, that was also considered sport. You are in a way disrespecting them in the sense that you are discrediting their work.

[SCP]

One thing we can all agree on, starting the pace laps at 9:48pm on Saturday night was dumb.

[CollegePanther]

Golf is much more of a sport than Nascar.

Sent from the Carolina Huddle App

Nascar is more of a sport than golf or even baseball for that matter. And I can speak from experience.

[CollegePanther]

One thing we can all agree on, starting the pace laps at 9:48pm on Saturday night was dumb.

i agree, The marketing of the top 3 series is more than less a joke anymore

[MurkN]

I don't agree with everything in the chart but it makes some interesting points.

 

[SCP]

I don't agree with everything in the chart but it makes some interesting points.

I mean who came up with these ratings? An ESPN study doesn't mean squat. I contend that knowing an NFL play book and adapting to defenses in a split second on the fly is more mentally draining than driving. Again, if a sport has to constantly defend that its a sport and it's participants are athletes, then it's not a sport.