When two personalities from different sports cross over, things are bound to get interesting. Ryan Blaney and the NFL’s Chad Johnson recently teamed up for a spin on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. 

Appearing on the On The Gas talk show, Blaney took Johnson through a wide range of challenges, which included a run on the oval and then on the in-field road course.

Johnson then responded to Stephen A Smith’s hot take on racers not being real athletes. Pushing back hard against it, he stated that racing involves ‘life-or-death’ stakes, with zero room for error. 

“He doesn't know what he's talking about because he hasn't been in here. If Stephen A. Smith is to come out here and experienced this in the passenger seat, and then… how many cars on a race day? (40)"

Johnson also added in the same reel posted on Instagram, "It puts things into context and a better perspective on why they are athletes. Because this is life or d****. Not the NFL, not the NBA -- one wrong move can cost someone's life. You have to be very athletic to be able to do what they do here.”

Sometime earlier this year, Smith dropped a controversial take saying that NASCAR drivers and golfers were not real athletes. Below is an excerpt of what he said on the Mad Dog Sports Radio Show (via Awful Announcing): 

“NASCAR is a sport, are they athletes too, because they can get behind the wheel of a car and drive 100-plus miles per hour around the track 500 times, you trying to tell me they’re athletes too?” 

Needless to say, his comments were not well-met by the NASCAR community at all, with three-time Cup champion (rightfully) stating that Smith is making comments for views and relevance. 

Will Buxton and Kevin Harvick had a more detailed argument on the same. 

Harvick and Buxton on the extremities of racing

In an interaction on the SPEED with Harvick and Buxton podcast, the two hosts agreed that the idea of racing being simply 'sitting in a car' is an uninformed viewpoint that ignores the extreme reality of professional motorsport.

Buxton then gave a detailed breakdown of the physical and physiological demands that racing requires. 

"If you're in an open-wheel car, right? Imagine you're lying in the bath, with your feet on the taps at the end. Your feet are out in front of you like this. You have to have good core strength right here. And you're holding a weight in front of you, probably like 25 kilos of weight that you are turning. So you need good upper body strength all the way through. 

The only part of your body that isn't strapped into the car is your head, which has a helmet strapped onto it. And when you brake or when you hit the throttle or when you go into a speed change of direction, that head and that helmet is undergoing a change of g-force, sometimes up to 6G.”

Buxton also highlighted the extreme temperatures in the cockpit, along with the impact on one’s neck, head, lungs, and internal organs shifting during cornering. He also extended an invite to Smith for a discussion on the show, and also to experience some time in a NASCAR or IndyCar vehicle, along with a simulator. 

Read more at the RFK Racing Digest!

Written by

Aaradhya Singh

Edited by

Kaamna Dwivedi