It’s a debate that has been hashed out many a time, from the shores of Southern California to the chilly North-East of Maine. I’ve had this debate several times with friends, enemies and the guy 3 seats down at the local bar, and I’m sticking to my guns here. However, before we can go forward, we have to go back. Back to a time when I was a wee lad, working on my Uncle Eugene’s Soy Bean farm in Bunker Hill, Indiana through what then seemed like the hottest, longest days ever which led to unending summers.
I remember my Uncle Gene fondly. He was a wonderful man that had a passion for cars, soy beans and of course the occasional Old Milwaukee or Miller High Life (The Champagne as my friends and I refer to it). He was a gun collector and had many pieces that were priceless, namely, the six shooter used in the original Lone Ranger TV show, he owned 2 of Doc Holliday’s pistols and various guns from other Old West cowboys like Wild Bill Hickok, Bat Masterson and even one from Pearl Hart, who was a notorious female stage coach robber. He was a man of many layers. His ultimate passion though, as were his sons’ Rick, Mike, Glenn and David, was Indy Car and NASCAR Racing. He tried to sway me, but I think I knew early that Hockey, Baseball and Football were more my speed. I also knew that I didn’t really understand the whole “car racing” thing, but boy he did, and he knew it well.
The story of Gene’s entry into the sport is a funny one, and one that I’ve heard a hundred times, and it goes like this: One day in the late 50’s at the “Southern Oaks Drag Strip”, which was a dirt track drag strip out in the middle of nowhere outside Indianapolis, Gene had this really nice 1937 Chevy Sedan Delivery (Which his family still owns) and supposedly it was the fastest, meanest and baddest car around. Well I guess this guy named A.J. heard about it while in town and went and checked out a race, seeing Eugene out there beating everyone easily, A.J. walked up to Gene and said something along the lines of “Hey, you wanna’ race me kid”? Well, Gene never backed down from anyone for anything and said to A.J. after he asked “Race? It won’t be a race….I’ll beat you worse than my Old Man does our Mule”. So, they raced, and A.J. was beaten…pretty badly from all accounts. So, knowing that he obviously had met someone that new a little bit about cars and how to make them go faster, A.J. asked Gene for some advice on his cars, and thus a friendship and partnership was born. Uncle Gene went on to work for A.J. for years and was the former Pit-Chief and Lead Mechanic for A.J. back in the 60’s and 70’s helping him with the Indy 500 several times. The A.J. I speak of is one A.J. Foyt. For those of you that don’t know, A.J. Foyt is now a legend in both Indy Car and NASCAR racing as he’s still the only driver to ever win the Indy 500, Daytona 500, 24 hours of Dayton and 24 hours of LeMans. All big time accomplishments in the racing world.
Eugene looked at those days fondly throughout his life and held those memories close for as long as I can remember. Uncle Gene left the sport for several years in the middle-late 70’s and did some consulting work with A.J. and other people in both NASCAR and Indy Racing through the 80’s and then firmly retired in the early 90’s. I remember Gene would say things like “Daymon, racing is the only sport in the world that requires the mental and physical focus it does” or trying to convince me racing was the best thing since sliced bread saying things like “Daymon, don’t you think it would be neat to be a race car driver? Think of how fast you could go while driving around that track”! Eugene was always trying to plant the seed and spread the gospel of the greatness of racing, he was passionate about it, and for that I say god bless the man. He’s a man who loved the racing game and was always looking forward to the next big race, be it in Indiana, North Carolina or somewhere else.
As I got older, my time in Indiana lessened until I was too busy with baseball to be going back there to work on the soy bean farm during the summers. I was into baseball and nothing more and played all the time, every season it was available. Uncle Gene and I would talk on the phone all the time, having the debate of which sport is tougher and why. There was always some playful razzing and occasionally it would get louder than the typical conversation. But hey, I had my passion and he had his…..and my view of racing has never ever changed, and likely never ever will. NASCAR, Indy Car, Drag or any other kind of automotive racing IS NOT A SPORT, it’s competition.
In recent years, ESPN among other sports-news outlets have picked up NASCAR heavily, and it’s now pretty much in their regular rotation. I can’t debate the numbers, NASCAR is one of the most watched “sporting events” every year, and their merchandising numbers are through the roof….I’m talking on par with NFL merchandising, which is amazing. I’ll give them their due, they promote and merchandise the hell out their product, and they’re seeing success in the form of product sales and corporate sponsorships. To their credit, the typical TV program NASCAR airs are some of the more technologically advanced programs on TV and they’re really growing, and somewhat enjoyable to watch. However, that doesn’t change the fact that it’s NOT A SPORT.
Webster’s Dictionary defines sport as this: Sport: is an athletic activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively. Sports are commonly referred to as activities where the physical capabilities of the competitor are the sole or primary determiner of the outcome (winning or losing).
Let’s break that definition down: “is an athletic activity”. The last time I checked, driving a car at high speeds and turning left is NOT an athletic activity. It goes on to say “Sports are commonly referred to as activities where the physical capabilities of the competitor are the sole or primary determiner of the outcome (winning or losing)”. Now, it may take some dexterity and strength to handle a car at those speeds, however, the drivers physical capabilities have no direct bearing on the outcome as the definition states. The mechanical capabilities of the car ultimately decide who wins and who looses and frankly, those cars are designed to turn left, thus making it easier for the driver to maneuver. So, the only conclusion that one can logically come to here, is that racing is NOT A SPORT, rather a competition which I might add is a spirited competition and it’s good competition.
Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard it all, “you’ve never driven a car a 200 mph and had to keep it on a track” and to that guy I usually say, “neither have you”. I’ve also heard the old “you don’t understand what it takes to do that” and again my rebuttal is usually something like “neither do you, so how can you speak about it”?….blah, blah blah…… Have any of you out there ever wondered why the typical NASCAR driver looks like the guy in line 5 at your local Home Depot instead of a refined, conditioned athlete along the lines of Tiger Woods, Kevin Garnett, Terrell Owens, Allen Iverson or countless other professional athletes? The reason is simple, real athletes train for their craft for hours upon hours a day. They train in weight rooms, and on practice fields and make themselves so firmly conditioned that they can go full speed for several hours with little fatigue. NASCAR drivers do not spend countless hours in the training rooms and on practice fields and as a matter of fact, most of their “practice” is done on computer gaming systems. The physical aspect of the race itself is minimal, especially since the cars are “set-up” to allow the driver to succeed.
Look, you take Tony Stewart out of his car and put him on a basketball court, that guy is going to struggle. Take Dale Jr. out of his car and put him in the batters box, he doesn’t touch any Brad Lidge pitch that’s thrown. Better yet, take Jeff Gordon out of his car and put him in a pair of Ice Skates…..that would be a show to see. If you took other athletes out of their respective sports and put them in another sport, they would at least be competitive. Put Chauncey Billups in at a WR position in the NFL, he probably is able to perform adequately enough to make the team. Put Mike Phelps in a baseball uniform, he probably is able to perform equally. My point here is this: NASCAR drivers are not athletes, because what they do does not require any athletic ability. Throwing a Curveball, draining a 3 pointer, making a tackle and throwing a TD are things that take athletic talent. Driving a car doesn’t fit there. Is NASCAR dangerous? Absolutely, no one said that it wasn’t. However, You and I assume an equal amount of danger while driving our car’s/trucks to work every day. Proof here can be seen in the statistical information on the amount of fatalities caused in daily driving. NASCAR and INDY don’t often experience that….RIP Dale Earnhardt Sr.
The bottom line here, is that I don’t feel that NASCAR should be considered a sport for the simple fact that the Crew Chief and his Crew are ultimately the ones who decide how that car is going to run. My Uncle Eugene told me once “without a good crew chief, you could have the best driver around and still lose”. That statement rings with me still, because frankly, he’s right. If your Crew Chief and his Crew have a good day, and everything is assembled perfectly, chances are the car is going to run better and stronger. If the Crew Chief and his Crew have a bad day and things don’t go together as smoothly, chances are the car won’t perform up to it’s capabilities. I look at this debate and I laugh, because let’s be honest, the piece of machinery in which that driver sits is the athlete, not the driver. The mechanical aptitude of the Crew Chief and Crew members are the key component to someone winning a race. Think about this, if a NASCAR has an accident and breaks off a piece of the body but the driver is ok with no injuries, the car must be properly repaired before it can be competitive again. The drivers fine, but the car is damaged, the car is the deciding factor…..not the driver. There are simply too many variables when building a car that can dictate how the vehicle runs to say that the driver is the sole reason that he/she succeeds or doesn’t.
In my mind, NASCAR, at best, can be viewed as mechanical competition, with “competition” being the key word, because it’s not a sport. In my mind, NASCAR ranks right along side of Competitive Eating, Dog Shows, RC Car Racing, Billiards and Darts. I respect the fact that race car drivers put their life on the line every time they’re on the track, however, I don’t think what they do, is any different than what you and I do. Here’s my theory on what is a sport and what is not:
Sports revolve around competition in one or more of several aspects namely speed, strength, endurance and, most subjectively, skill. Some sports are pure embodiments of a single aspect of competition. Like the 100meter dash is pure speed, powerlifting is nearly pure strength, the Tour De France is pure endurance. It is when the “skill” aspect becomes predominant that the term “sport” becomes debatable. It seems to me that whether a skill task qualifies as a sport is based upon how complex it is. For instance, Darts is not really a sport because the motor skill required is not complex and is always the same – your always throwing a dart the same distance using the same motion. Move up the scale a notch or two to Bowling – you’re throwing that 16 lb. ball 60ft. but the shots change, lane conditions change, etc – increasing the complexity of the motor task. (sidenote here: Bowling is tough, I know…I have 9 perfect games.) Anyway, go up the scale another notch to Golf – a very complex motor task with many variations for driving 300 yard bombs, chipping into the cup, coming out of the sand, putting the 25 footer, different weather, courses, etc. Thus it becomes more sport like. Applying this to NASCAR – well it’s a complex motor task, I think it’s less complex than golf, more complex than bowling or darts, but a whole lot more dangerous. Personally, I don’t think it rises to the level of sport.
As I wrote that, I couldn’t help but think about ol’ Uncle Gene, and I can see his cheeks getting red with frustration. I think about it, and I’m sure if Uncle gene were still around he’d have something witty and probably wise-ass to say about now. Something like “That’s a bunch of Horse S*#t….get me a beer” or “What the Sam Hell are you talking about”. Oh how I would love to hear that rant just one more time! Ultimately though the definition doesn’t lie and NASCAR doesn’t meet the definition of a sport!
November 5th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Well sir just what would you call It./ In that caSE FOOTBALL HOCKEY BASEBALL are not sports either. they are a scam to make money an to have some competition. no more no less
case closed
November 5th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
Pete,
I appreciate your feedback and encourage this type of feedback to this site. However, if you’re saying that driving a car at high speeds requires more physical talent then say, throwing an 80mph curveball for a strike, firing a 100mph slap shot from the blue line or making people miss and being able to run for a TD like Ladainian Tomlinson, I would have to respectfully and adamantly disagree with you. Football, Hockey and Baseball all require fierce athletic ability to be able to play at the professional level. I will say that NASCAR takes something most sports don’t, and that’s idiocy.
Simply put, just because you or one of your friends can play rec. league softball at hit a couple of bombs to left field, doesn’t mean you could suit up in the bigs and it doesn’t make you or whom you know an athlete. And just because Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart drive really fast, doesn’t mean they’re athletes either. They’re guys driving fast with a machine that’s set up for success.
NASCAR is simply this: Rednecks turning left for 500 miles, while other rednecks watch and drink cheap beer.
November 6th, 2008 at 9:20 am
Yes sir hello and good day. Cool website. But I have a question…would you consider “Sport Fishing” a “sport”? I mean, it has “sport” right in the name of the “sport”. I don’t think that it is, but thats what they call it. Maybe we can get a Fantasy Sports Fishing League going. Could be big, let me know. Peace!
November 6th, 2008 at 10:39 am
Sport Fishing a sport? Intriguing question…..It does say “sport” right in the title….how could it not be?? Oh, and the Fantasy Sport Fishing League would be awesome! I think scoring categories would be something like this:
Casts over 10 feet – 1 point
Casts over 20 feet – 2 points
Sidearm Casts – .5 points
Ambedextrious Casts – 5 points
3 Beers Chugged – 3 points
5 Beers Chugged – 5 points
10 or more Beers Chugged – 15 points
The Puking Bonus – 5 points.
Fish Caught over 2 pounds – 1 point
Fish Caught over 3 pounds – 2 points
Fish Caught over 5 pounds – 3 points
Caught Marlin – 20 points
Caught Shark – 25 points
Caught Halibut – 30 points
and Finally,
Lost Small Lure(s) – -1 points
Lost Medium Lure(s) – -2 points
Lost Large Lure(s) – -3 points
So really,
You could go fishing for “sport”, chug 10 beers, catch 3 fish over 3lbs, catch 1 over 5lbs, perform 2 ambedextrious casts, have 17 casts over 20 feet, and 9 over 10 feet, hit the puking bonus, get really lucky and land a marlin, only lose 1 medium lure and end up with a 100 point day, which can be considered a strong performance in Fantasy Sports Fishing!
October 16th, 2009 at 1:27 am
NASCAR is a sport. before this idiot talks about something he should do the research…
NASCAR IS physically demanding. the cars are tightly confined and the temp gets well over 200 degrees for 3+ hours at a time resulting in 10+ pounds loss on average every race. there’s for your “not an activity” attempt of an argument.
also to correct the fact that you somewhat had. NASCAR is the #1 spectator sport and the Daytona 500 is the #2 highest watched SPORTING event with about 12 million viewers.It is under the Superbowl and above and baseball games or boxing. so much for just rednecks…
Another thing is that you tried to argue that well put tony stewert on a basketball court or dale playing baseball. try and look up the definition of an athlete: a person trained or gifted in exercises or contests involving physical agility, stamina or strength. their job is to perfect what they are good at. you assume that any other athlete can be good at other sports but NASCAR drivers… shallow and you dont have the facts to prove it. But I do : ) michael jordon after mastering basketball tried his hand in baseball and was not good. RIGHT AGAIN!
also try a real definition of a sport. http://www.dictionary.com says that a sport is an athletic activity requiring skill and often in a competitive nature ex racing, baseball, tennis etc and yes RACING was first in examples
October 16th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
“Nascar Is A Sport”
Let me just first say that i appreciate you reading and commenting. Really, I do.
Moving on though….
YOUR argument is tainted my friend and is clearly that of someone who’s a NASCAR fan. The Bottom line here is this; NASCAR drivers are no more athletes than Bowlers or Billiards players. I understand that what they do does take a toll on the body, I’m not blind to that, but I also know how those cars are set up, and theyr’e set up to turn left my man.
I gave you the definition of a sport…per Webster’s Dictionary, and clearly NASCAR racing doesn;t rise to the level of a “Sport”. And, as I said, it’s good competition and is somewhat spirited, and I like that about NASCAR, but at the end of the day. Someone can’t look like Tony Stewart and be effective in a real sport. Sorry.
As for Michael Jordan, he was actually serviceable. I didn’t say they’d be good, I said they could hold their own at an elite level, and Michael did that. Some; Bo Jackson, Deion Sanders and Brian Jordan, transcended those lines between sports, and were good at multiple sports.
Racing doesn’t rely solely on the “athlete” driving the car to win. It rely’s on the mechanical capabilities of the vehicle itself. You could have the best driver in the world, and without a decent car, he wouldn’t win. Conversely, Baseball, Football, Basketball and a most other sports rely solely on the talent of the individual within his team to create success. that’s a sport….not NASCAR.
nice try though, and again, Thanks for reading!
October 16th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
This is BRILLIANT. Pure and simple. The problem with this debate as is the problem with any such “what is a sport” debate is that it offends people. People always want to believe that what they like is on the level. If I love chess, I may want it to be considered a sport, but cannot rationally argue that point. The key here is to set the premise that not being called a sport is not a bad thing. Its just something different. As far as entertainment is concerned, NASCAR is on par. It does take a level of physical conditioning and strength to do it. The key ingredient here is to paraphrase, “the physical contributions of the supposed athlete must relatively be the sole determinant to whether the athlete wins or loses”. The argument about the car discredits the sports argument. Put Jimmy Johnson in 1990 Ford Taurus off the street and he would never even place. I would sooner submit NASCAR drvers as athletes than I would ever consider NASCAR as a sport. With that being said, there are a number of activities that people love and have a passion for that are not sports. Its nothing personal, its just that those activities violate the very definition. Again, to say something is not a sport does not discount its merits, it merely categorizes the activity somewhere else.
October 18th, 2009 at 11:03 pm
Damn right im a NASCAR fan. I found this site and im using it in my college debate that is contriversial to me that NASCAR is a sport so thanks for helping me prove me point more!
First of all they aren’t built to turn left. there are road tracks in NASCAR, nice try. why can’t tony be considered an athlete? there are different body types per sport. I can admit he is not the most fit guuy but have you seen some of the overweight big ass linebackers for the NFL? or super tall boney NBA players? different body types per sport.
and nahh michael jordon TANKED in baseball. It is an assumption that you can not prove that a NASCAR driver can not sucessfully play another sport.
Sure anybody can drive a car. just like almost anybody can swim. But can you swim like Michael Phelps? or race like Jimmy Johnson?
And since you use the word ‘athlete’ like that I thought I could help you out and define the word given by dictionary.com: person trained or gifted in exercises or contests involving physical agility, stamina, or strength.
No “average” person could race a +200 degree car for 3+ hours and loose 10-15 pounds in that time period. STAMINA! or be able to sustain in the crashes these drivers have to go through and walk away because there job depends on it. STRENGTH! NASCAR drivers are pure athletes.
October 20th, 2009 at 10:12 am
Nascar is a sport –
My Uncle, Eugene, was a HUGE and integral part of A.J. Foyt’s success in his early years, and he was a part of NASCAR in some capacity into his golden years, and even up to when he passed away. And even he, a NASCAR purist and loyalist, could see that it didn’t rise to the level of a sport.
I’ve seen those cars built, I’ve seen those cars raced, and yes….I HAVE driven a NASCAR in a tandem set up, and while I wasn’t at 200+ mph, I was at 170-ish. It does take some dexterity, I can admit that, but it wasn’t anything like playing football, baseball or anything else. It was much less “athletic” than any of those sports. And frankly, if I could navigate that car at 170-ish for 25 laps, with relative ease, who couldn’t? Furthermore, I’m NOT a driver, and haven’t been a serious athlete in some time….since College, when I played a REAL sport….Hockey.
I also understand that there are road tracks, but, if you honestly think that they’re using only one car for a season, you’re sadly mistaken. they have, on average, 9-10 cars that are used. Each set up and calibrated for different tracks/courses. The car they use at the Brickyard is NOT the same car they use at whatever road track there is, nor is it the same that they use at Talladega. The motor, tranny etc…probably could be and sometimes is, but the componentry of the suspension varies in each car to allow it to be used, and most ARE, in fact, engineered to turn left.
Crashes are tough…no doubt, but again, I point to the engineering of those cars. A normal person could sit in that car and go through the same thing, and come out relatively unscathed, just as a NASCAR driver would. There’s more engineering in the race cars, particularly NASCAR and INDY cars than there is in most any other piece of machinery. The steering in the car I drove was 10 times more sensitive than any vehicle you’ve driven, making it easier and more effective.
So you see, when they’re calibrating horse power to tranny gearing ration, acceleration aspect to turning defelction ratio, fore rise to slump, wind resistance to weight distribution ratio and everything else they’re calibrating the “horse” that the driver must navigate. And, with that calibration, is the built in advantages; ie: the turning componentry that’s geared for lefts.
At this point, I’ve laid out my case and done so thoroughly and with information that you clearly don’t have, choose to ignore or fail to understand. I’m not criticizing NASCAR. Frankly, I find it enjoyable to watch sometimes, especially considering that their TV production is maybe better than ANY other “sport” out there. I’m just saying that it’s not Jimmy Johnson that’s winning those races….it’s the horse he’s in, and that in and of itself deflates the proverbial balloon of the “it’s a sport” argument.
It’s competition. Not a sport.
October 20th, 2009 at 10:28 am
Also, you mentioned the losing of the weight. But I think the shortcoming in that argument is this; they’re NOT losing weight because driving the car is so strenuous and athletically complex or hard.
They’re losing weight because the temperatures inside those cars reach a balmy 130 degrees. It’s not like they’re running a marathon and losing that weight, nor is it like they’re exercising so strenuously that they’re sweating weight off. They’re in a hot compartment, much like a sauna, and that’s why they lose weight.
Sure, it probably takes a toll on the body, but, no more than sitting in a sauna for a couple of hours. And, that happens all the time…go find someone on your college wrestling team and ask them.
Oh, and feel free to use my copyrighted work. Although, you should have asked before doing so.
Thanks for reading.
December 22nd, 2009 at 4:46 pm
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