On Feb. 23, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season will kick off with the 56 running of the Daytona 500. This race is often referred to as the “Superbowl of stock car racing” despite the fact that, on its face, it appears to be more like traffic on the Garden State Parkway at 200 m.p.h than something like Russell Wilson leading the Seahawks down the field at MetLife Stadium.
But while football remains, arguably the most popular sport in America, a few comparisons can be drawn between NASCAR’s biggest race and football’s biggest game.
While Daytona International Speedway did not release any official attendance figures for last year’s Daytona 500 (as is often the case with many NASCAR venues), in 2012 the track sold 140,000 of its 167,000 seats.
By comparison, the 2013 Super Bowl at New Orleans’ Mercedes-Benz Superdome, sold 71,024 of the stadium’s 73,208 seats. Yes, this was much closer to being a sellout crowd, but when you bear in mind that the Superdome’s seating can be expanded to accommodate a little more than 76,400 fans, and factor in the millions of other fans who were watching on television, it is clear that while NASCAR may never pass football, NASCAR is one of the most popular sports in the country.
That’s right. I called NASCAR a sport. For almost as long as man has tried to ration the idea, we have been debating if athleticism indicated drving a racecar.
Former NFL quarterback Donovan McNabb recently threw in his two cents when he was on FOX Sports 1’s FOX Sports Live (the network’s answer to SportsCenter) last November and said that NASCAR drivers are not athletes when asked where six-time champion Jimmie Johnson ranks on a list of current athletes.
“Do I think he’s an athlete? Absolutely not,” said McNabb after ranking Johnson third behind Tiger Woods and Kobe Bryant. “He sits in a car and he drives, so that doesn’t make you athletic. I give credit to what he’s been able to do.”
Let’s remember this is the same Donovan McNabb who was benched for a two minute drill because thenWashington Redskins coach Mike Shanahan said the quarterback was not in shape, so it seems the pot is calling the kettle black.
Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines an athlete as “a person who is trained or skilled in exercises, sports, or games requiring physical strength, agility, or stamina.”
A May 2013 article in the Orlando Sentinel says that, “NASCAR drivers can experience 3Gs of force against their bodies during a race, similar to the forces felt by shuttle astronauts at liftoff.”
The article also says a driver’s heart rate can pound between 120 to 150 beats per minute. Over a timespan of three to four hours, “that’s comparable to an experienced marathon runner.”
Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald said in a 2010 interview with the Bleacher Report’s Greg Esposito that “to be an elite athlete, [whether you’re] a NASCAR driver, in football, in basketball, golf, you have to be in peak physical condition. They might not be running, but sitting in a car going 200 m.p.h for 500 laps, you have to be mentally and physically strong and well-hydrated. There’s training that has to be done to be elite at anything.”
So while football may reign king among sports fans in America, there is another Super Bowl that will be taking place this Sunday.
Forty-three men will climb into their cars and do battle on the 33-degree banks of the Daytona International Speedway for 500 miles.
Their goal? Etch their name in the history books and claim a champion’s ring and NASCAR’s equivalent to the Lombardi Trophy; the Harley J. Earl Trophy. Whoever hoists that trophy this weekend will have a very significant distinction. They will not simply be known as a Daytona 500 winner, they will be forever known as a champion of NASCAR’s super bowl.