NASCAR: the Ultimate Non-Sport Sport
March 30th 2010 01:44
Denny Hamlin just won a race on a torn ACL
Some of you may not be aware that it is NASCAR season. Heck, I'd venture to say that its possible that some of you don't even know what NASCAR is. If you fall into the latter category, I am amazed that you manage to tiptoe through the Internet as a sports fan, doing things like reading the Sport Guru, but somehow manage to be oblivious to the most popular and watched sport in America.
Funny that I used the word "sport" to categorize NASCAR, because of how critically its merits as a sport are weighed by most. I have one argument to add to each side of the NASCAR: Sport or Not A Sport? debate.
NASCAR: Sport
In the endless pursuit of determining whether certain athletic endeavors are sports or not, a friend of mine came up with a pretty simple definition of sport. Basically, anything that has self-determined results--basketball, football, baseball, hockey, curling, cricket, etc--is, by definition, sport.
Sorry Shawn, gymnastics is not technically a sport
So, technically, NASCAR is a sport. Drivers compete against each other to be ahead of the pack when the laps run out. The outcomes bears itself out in the performance of the participants, no judging or deciding necessary.
NASCAR: Non-Sport
On Monday's rescheduled running of the Sprint Cup Series at Martinsville, Denny Hamlin came from a few spots back on a green-white-checkered restart to grab the lead and notch his first win of the young 2010 season. There is nothing out of the ordinary about someone coming from behind to win, the race itself, or the fact that Hamlin won. What makes this such a compelling story is the fact that Hamlin has a torn right ACL, stemming from a pickup basketball injury sustained in January. The fact that Hamlin can jump in his car, strap on the belt, and compete with the best drivers in the world--all with a torn ACL--is where anti-NASCAR enthusiasts will insert their argument.
The big knock on NASCAR drivers is that there is thought to be no athletic ability requisite in mastering the sport. Sure, there are elements present that every athlete must have, like endurance, focus, strategy, hand-eye coordination, and split-second decision making, but all of these surface while the agent is sitting in a seat, driving a car. Certainly there is nothing athletic about that, which is the basis for many arguments that NASCAR is not a sport. Some of these guys couldn't hit a baseball or score a basketball if their lives depended on it. How can something that does not require running, jumping, catching, throwing, balancing, or footwork, possibly be a sport?
These are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to for/against NASCAR arguments, I just thought Denny Hamlin's win was an appropriate time and place to add some fuel to the fire.
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