72 year old Morgan Shepherd is in the New Hampshire Sprint race today. Do they even have qualifying? And why does he not drive for Cialis and AARP?
Logano was in second place, tried to pass Shepherd who was.15 laps down and got put into the wall. Get that old man off the track.
Someone nearly hit me on 295 today. I was driving in the middle lane and he changed lanes without looking, nearly clipping the left front corner of my car. I had to brake only to get rear-ended by my step-dad. More exciting driving than anything Nascar could ever produce.
Without constant physical exertion--without needing physical prowess, such as strength and speed, or physical technique, I have a difficult time calling it a sport.
Drive 500 miles for 3+ hours with an average speed exceeding 150mph and guys right next to you and tell me it isn't causing physical exertion.
Shepard being out there was a joke, yes, big time, but lay off the generalizations about NASCAR as a whole. I bit my tongue for the last month on making generalizations about soccer after all...
agreed.......people can argue whether or not they enjoy watching it or not, but it sure takes a skill set, stregnth, stamina, nerves etc to be able to do it. I'd have crapped my pants after the pace car lap on any given race.
I like NASCAR, but I don't think I'd consider is a sport. I think the only reason there's even a debate about this is because when the major networks bought the television rights to broadcast races, they decided to categorize it under their sports programming. However, drivers do exert themselves at a constant rate physically, and need to have extremely sharp reflexes if they don't want to go half a mile upside down backwards and on fire. I'd be surprised if any of the World Cup goalies this year (aside from that Brazil guy) exerted themselves as much in a game as a NASCAR driver does in a race. The difference is that drivers don't have to be elite athletes to get their job done, they need to be elite drivers with enough physical ability to withstand the heat and constant muscle clench that goes with flooring it to between 160 and 200 MPH for 3 straight hours. Drivers are only the main person in an in-race team, though, people that don't know anything about NASCAR assume that the driver is the only one that matters. Rick Hendricks Racing commonly recruits D-1 football players to be their pit crew members, because they have to make every 10th of a second count in a pit stop, some of those guys are monsters. So, while it's not technically a sport in my mind, there are definitely a lot of athletes on racing teams. As far as being able to enjoy NASCAR, I guess it really depends on whether or not you have any interest in cars, and even then you may not be interested. 10 years ago I didn't give a shit about NASCAR, even though I was beginning to do a lot of drag racing. Just looked like a bunch of guys driving in circles to me. Once I got someone to really break down the nuances and strategies of their racing, I really started to become interested. Not for everybody, but that's true of anything.
Great post. This is almost exactly how I feel. I would call it a sport myself, mainly because of the strategy and team components you mention, but really it doesn't even matter to me if it is or it isn't, I like it just the same. It's funny that you mention not being into at first until you started getting interested in the cars. That's exactly how I am. I used to not really like it, but I started paying attention to the cars and learning more about them and now I am hooked on NASCAR. It's really cool if you understand the strategies and can follow the issues they are having and their plans and what not. I actually liked it more when I was first interested in just NASCAR itself and the cars and I didn't have a favorite driver yet. It kind of sucks when you have driver in a way, if his engine blows on the 3rd lap, it's not as fun at all watching the rest of the race.
Good points about the races being physically taxing. I also hadn't considered the pit crew aspect. Still, in my own view, I just don't view it as a sport (the way I view the others) because I don't feel a sense of athleticism that I associate with sports. For the driver, is it the distance that matters? The distance + the speed? I can play tackle football at the park or a pickup basketball game, and I know I'll never reach the level of the stuff I see on TV. I suppose I could say the same for racing. I can drive 150mph on a section of the Autobahn, but I won't experience what the drivers must endure. I understand the arguments for it being classified as a sport, but there's something about it that just doesn't fully allow me to perceive it as a sport.
Excellent post, I'm glad you brought that up about pit crews. Some of the teams have these guys train year round, weight room sessions, reviewing film, practice their runs, etc. For athletes that don't make it to the pro's, being on a crew might be the next best thing as far as getting paid to workout goes.
I like watching the wrecks, and Shepherd didn't disappoint when he took out Joey Lagano who was in 2nd place while the 72 year old was 15 laps down. On the post race show Shepherd blamed Lagano for the wreck. Lagano replied that there should be a test for drivers , but that there isn't one.
I love racing but racing on an oval track is just boring. Not to mention constant cautions that bring out the pace car.
