Dear Editor,
I’d like to begin by saying that I come from a town that is home to a NASCAR speedway. I have lived in my hometown of Martinsville, Va., for 15 years and have never seen a NASCAR race, nor am I interested in any way with this form of racing. I do however have some knowledge in this SPORT, as I am an avid fan of most kinds of motor sports.
In the Thursday, Sept. 21, 2006, issue of this newspaper, I skimmed through the sports section to find an article that seemed to have been written merely to take up space on the page.
The article went on and on about NASCAR drivers not being athletes and this series of racing not being a sport. I would like to ask the writer if he understands the conditions that the drivers are put through 10 months out of the year?
I can’t remember the last football game played in heat in excess of 140 degrees, or any baseball player that lost five to 10 pounds in one game because of this heat. It is also known that a driver’s pulse rate is at 85 percent of maximum, similar to that of marathon runners. A driver’s helmet weighs around 3 pounds when it is at rest, however, in a banked-turn pulling up to 5 G’s it can be five times as heavy. When was the last NASCAR race that you heard of having timeouts or a halftime?
It doesn’t sound like your average out of shape college student that sits in front of a videogame all day could just climb in a cup car and be the next champion. I honestly doubt this writer could handle a vehicle that weighs in excess of 3,400 pounds, and produces over 700 horsepower in these conditions, at speeds of over 200 mph for a race that lasts up to four hours.
It concerns me when a writer babbles on about a subject that he or she is seemingly uneducated in. It offended me and should have offended anyone who enjoys any type of motor sport activity. R racing takes a certain amount of athleticism. It takes more than just sitting in a car making left-hand turn ‘over and over’ again to race.
Brian Judson

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