Blog Prompt #6

It was in 2013 that former Pro-Bowl quarterback Donovan McNabb said on Fox Sports that six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion Jimmie Johnson was no athlete, but rather someone who just “sits in a car and drives,” echoing every hot take you have ever heard in the “is motor racing a sport?” debate while sitting at the bar with your friends. Are McNabb and the anti-motor racing considered a sports crowd factually correct in this? Absolutely not.

First, we must examine what the experts constitute as what makes a sport. Those who get paid to have the conversations most of us are paying to have.

Dan Lebowitz, executive director of the Center for the Study of Sport in Society in Boston, believes “Sport is a competitive endeavor that involves athleticism in which the goal is to win.” (Walters, 2016)

The Council of Europe charter on sport uses the following definition: "Sport means all forms of physical activity, which through casual or organized participation, aim at expressing or improving physical fitness and mental well-being, forming social relationships or obtaining results in competition at all levels".  (BBC, What Constitutes a Sport?”)

Let’s take races like the Indy 500 and Daytona 500 as examples. The goal of these races is most certainly to win, making them highly competitive endeavors. Mental well-being? If you aren’t mentally sound and switched on, it is no exaggeration that you may end up in a fatal accident, especially when your average speed is 192.872 miles per hour, like Chase Elliott’s was at the 2017 Daytona 500. (USA Today, Daytona 500 pole winners and speeds by year)

Social relationships? These drivers rely on their pit crews to keep their cars literally running like well-oiled machines. Obviously you are not going to want people you don’t trust and haven’t developed a strong relationship with ensuring your car is functional. Not to mention the fraternity among the drivers, travelling around the country and world with a select group of individuals who risk their lives every single time they compete.

Athleticism? This is the one of the main anti-motor racing arguments, and also the argument used by McNabb in his infamous 2013 rant. These people believe it is simply just a matter or turning left and right, but the notion of the drivers not being highly physically fit could not be further from the truth.

Over the last five years, Dr. Lara Carlson of the University of New England in Biddeford, England, has researched what drivers’ bodies go through while on the track.  Here are some of her findings: (Koenig, 2016) (Verlin, 2016)

• ·         Stock car drivers have 101.48 degrees while racing (regular body temperate is 98, 101 typically requires a trip to the doctor and a day or two off work)

• ·         G Loads (amount of gravitational pressure something experiences) are between three and five G’s during turns (In a space shuttle launch, for comparison, astronauts pull three Gs for several seconds, drivers do that for three-four hours)

• ·         There is an immense cardiovascular strain. During a Grand Prix, driver’s heart rates average at 170 beats per minute (BPM) and peak at 190 BPM, which is close to the maximum heart rate a human can experience without suffering major heart problems.

• ·         The average Formula 1 driver loses 9 pounds during a race, which comes as no shock given the average temperature inside cars exceeds 104 degrees. In closed-cockpit cars, temperatures can exceed 120 degrees.

You simply cannot take a sedentary individual and put them in one of these races, as their bodies are unable to handle the physical stress. In order to be able to compete, let alone win, your body has to be highly conditioned and you must place a great emphasis on your hydration and diet, as a basketball, football, or baseball player would.

So, next time you are downing pitchers of Miller Lite with your buddies, remind them when you are driving to work or around the neighborhood, you aren’t putting severe cardiovascular strain on your body. You aren’t competing to (and if you are that’s a mistake). You aren’t experiencing the sensation astronauts experience for three or four hours. They see a mechanic likely once every few months, and they don’t share a rare kinship with those sharing the road with them. Motor racing is definitely a sport and the drivers are tremendous athletes.

Sources Cited

BBC iWonder - What constitutes a sport? (n.d.). Retrieved April 17, 2017, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/z3m7xsg

Koenig, S. (2016, March 01). Science Proves It: Racecar Drivers Are Athletes. Retrieved April 17, 2017, from http://www.motorsport-safety.org/media/news/science-proves-it-racecar-drivers-are-athletes

Sports, U. T. (2017, February 19). Daytona 500 pole winners and speeds by year. Retrieved April 17, 2017, from https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nascar/2017/02/19/daytona-500-all-time-pole-qualifying-winners-speeds/97571726/

Verlin, K. (2016, June 09). 4 Reasons Auto Racing is a “Real” Sport and Racing Drivers are Athletes. Retrieved April 17, 2017, from http://thenewswheel.com/4-reasons-auto-racing-is-a-real-sport-and-racing-drivers-are-athletes/#Sweat

Walters, J. (2016, June 18). What is a sport? Retrieved April 17, 2017, from http://www.newsweek.com/2016/06/17/chessboxing-ostrich-racing-golf-sports-467634.html