GoGold Wrote:OptimisticOwl Wrote:Baseball is a sport, because the main difference is in the guys who swing the bats, not the bats themselves. When baseball players start having crews working around the clock on their bats to try and squeeze out an extra 40 points of BA, then it will not be a sport.
The driver does play a part, but in discussions with people I know who are involved with racing, the car is 70-80%. And this grudging admission comes from fans and participants. If your car is too slow or too unreliable, you don't win. Next time I see a driver carry a car across the finish line, I will reconsider.
Well you do have some baseball players that have crews supplying illegal drugs to squeeze out a F E W extra home runs in a season.
Spent alot of time riding around Loop 820 do you? I am not a big race fan. Been to a couple of races in my life, Rockingham, Darlington. But anybody who says NASCAR is not a sport, must spent alot of time riding around Loop 820. Lets say you are correct and the car is 80%, so you don't need the other 20% to win? Do you think these cars just present themselves to the crews and drivers? The best cars are a result of the best crews. There are days and countless hours spent tweaking this and tweaking that, and the success of all that tweaking is measured in tenths of a second. You can have a race won until during that final pit stop when the guy putting the lug nuts on the last tire is a quarter of a second slow, and the race is lost. The car doesn't win the race. The driver doesn't win the race. The crew doesn't win the race. The owner doesn't win the race. The TEAM wins the race. And its the team that puts together the best 100% on that given day that crosses the finish line first. You think the driver doesn't matter, you take the worst skilled driver and put him in the best car in the field, they will not finished first. Its no different than football. You can have the fastest recievers in the nation, but what good are they if you don't also have a QB that can get them the ball? But even with a QB that can, if you don't have a OL that can give the QB enough time, then all you have is some fast guys running down a grass field.
To say that NASCAR is not a sport because it involves a car is the worst smelling brain fart I ever read on a internet message board.
I would really love to hear the reaction of someone like Dale Jr when asked whether his father was entertaining the fans in the stands or competing on the track during raceday.
Well, i do spend a lot of time on 820, but primairily I was using it as an example of of an endless loop, like a racetrack, with a bunch of cars on it, like a race track, all trying to get somewhere a little faster, like a race track.
On a football team or baseball team, the outcome depends on the athletic abilities of the team members. On a racing team it depends more on the technical abilities of the mechanics. technical abilities have nothing to do with athletic abilities. The best mechanic in racing may not be able to complete a 100 yard dash in less than than overtime, or jump more than to the head of the dinner line.
Your statement about crews juicing baseball players just proves my point - they are juicing the athlete, not the equipment. There is a difference.
You put the best driver in the worst car, he doesn't win either. Yes, it is a team endeavor, but the outcome is not based primarily on the ahtletic abilities of the team members, so by my definition it is not a sport. I am sure that Dale Jr.s opinion would differ from mine, but so what? That doesn't mean he is right. And lots of things are team endeavors without being a sport. Chorus, anyone? Orchestra?
Yes it's dangerous - that's the source of much of the attention given it. But have you ever tried to frame a 2- or 3-story house? Think Dale Jr. could walk around on those 2 x 4's without killing himself? The most dangerous occupations in the US are commercial fisherman and lumberjacking. Let's put those drivers on a fishing boat in the Bering Sea or atop a 100 ft pine, see how they do. Danger doesn't make it a sport. Thrills - try the sport of bungeee-jumping, or the sport of running across the freeway blindfolded. Money - play poker. Crowds - ask Billy Graham about crowds - or any politician. Lack of crowds doesn't make volleyball or water polo not sports.
You can, and obviously do, define a sport differently than I do. You haven't given us a defintion that would include nascar, so i don't know how you define it. I defined it earlier in this thread, and I stick with my defintion, and by my definition it is not a sport.
