It's Like Running a Marathon, Jimmie Johnson Opens Up on the NASCAR Reality Fans Don't See

The cockpit of a NASCAR Cup Series race car is, by any scientific measurement, a hostile environment. Temperatures climb to 150 degrees Fahrenheit over three-to-four-hour stints. G-forces generated at banking angles of more than 30 degrees load the neck and shoulders with the equivalent of fighting gravity on every turn.

Caloric burn in a single race has been documented at north of 3,000 calories, a number so large that tracking device manufacturer Polar sent Kevin Harvick a replacement unit, assuming the equipment had malfunctioned. The marathon runner is the closest athletic analogy, and even that comparison understates the cognitive demands of managing 40 cars at speeds exceeding 200 miles per hour with no timeouts, no substitutions, and no exit.

Into that context stepped Stephen A. Smith. The SiriusXM radio show rant heard around the garage area, in which the ESPN personality dismissed NASCAR drivers as non-athletes because, as he put it, “you can be behind the wheel of a car in your 60s and 70s.” His statement ignited a chain reaction across the sport last week that reached NASCAR’s television broadcast, NASCAR’s CEO, Michael Jordan’s phone, and ultimately the ears of Jimmie Johnson.

Johnson is not just any NASCAR driver. He is a seven-time Cup Series champion, a two-time Daytona 500 winner, a NASCAR Hall of Famer, and a 50-year-old who announced in February 2026 that the 2027 Daytona 500 will be the final Cup Series race of his career. In a recent interview, the driver of Legacy Motor Club’s No. 84 Toyota, who began racing motorcycles at age four and built a career of 83 Cup victories, spoke about the Smith controversy.

1. Jimmie Johnson Reveals the Brutal Race Day Marathon Fans Never See

In the interview, Johnson was asked about one thing that fans get wrong about different types of racing series. To which, Johnson responded, “I would say the athleticism that’s required to drive. Stephen A.’s comments about NASCAR drivers. The constant G-force that we’re fighting, it’s like running a marathon.” Next, the interviewer asked what is one sensation of driving a race car on the high banks that Johnson would miss, to which he answered, “Coming off turn four and knowing you’re in the lead, watching the flash bulbs pop for winning the Daytona 500. Being able to experience it twice… man, it’s just such a rush. It’s insane.”

2. The 3G Force That Proves Drivers Are Athletes and Johnson’s Final Daytona Push

The G-force element that Johnson references in his interview answer is where the athleticism debate tends to be resolved among sports medicine professionals. A NASCAR driver navigating a banked superspeedway corner sustains lateral G-loads in the range of 2 to 3G, meaning the driver’s body is fighting a force two to three times that of normal gravity, specifically in the neck and upper body. for the duration of the corner. Multiplied across a 500-mile race and repeated across a season of 36 events, the cumulative physical load on a Cup Series driver’s body is substantial by any reasonable athletic standard. Johnson has also addressed the cognitive demands that sit alongside the physical ones, noting the unique pressures that come before a driver even buckles in. Johnson won the Daytona 500 twice, in 2006 and 2013, and each win arrived with its own particular set of circumstances. In 2006, he started ninth on the grid, took the lead on lap 187 from teammate Brian Vickers just before the final round of pit stops, and held on as a caution flag froze the field. It was his first superspeedway win. In 2013, he again started ninth, led 17 laps, and held off a last-lap charge from Dale Earnhardt Jr. to win his second. Johnson announced in February 2026 that the 2027 Daytona 500 will be his final NASCAR Cup Series race, which means the sensation he described in the interview; the turn four moment, the flashbulbs, the lead, is a memory he has lived twice and will attempt to recapture one final time next February.

3. Stephen A. Smith’s ‘Non-Athlete’ Rant Ignites a Garage War

Stephen A. Smith’s SiriusXM comments came during a discussion of the greatest athletes of all time, prompted by a caller who suggested NASCAR legend Richard Petty. Smith was firm in his dismissal. He had said, “A NASCAR driver is not an athlete. Just because you gotta walk the course for 18 holes for four days, that don’t make you an athlete. They’re skilled players; they’re elite at what they do. But athletes? Athletes? Are you kidding me?” Smith doubled down in the days that followed, and when Joey Logano accused him of making the comments to stay relevant, Smith fired back directly, “Let me speak directly to Mr. Joey Logano — I don’t know you from a can of paint. My television show has been No. 1 in the morning for 14 straight years.” The debate is not new, but the current version has accumulated institutional weight. NASCAR broadcaster Mike Joy referenced the controversy directly during the Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega, saying on-air: “Earlier this week, a well-known online pundit said race car drivers are not athletes. I want to send him this sequence” — gesturing toward a 26-car wreck on lap 114 — “and ask him to think about it.” Michael Jordan, himself a NASCAR team owner through 23XI Racing, reportedly called Smith to challenge the take, though Smith says he argued with Jordan and refused to back down. Front Row Motorsports reached out to Smith’s Instagram directly, offering him a seat in a stock car. Ryan Preece, who has survived some of the sport’s most violent documented flips, said: “I’d love for him to go tumbling 13 times, have black eyes, and show up next week doing what you gotta do.” Stephen A. Smith’s episode is about a stigma that has followed motorsport for decades; the perception that racers are not athletes because the audience cannot easily see the effort. In a basketball game, physicality is visible, i.e., the contact, the conditioning, the speed of movement. In a NASCAR race broadcast, what the camera shows is a car. What it does not show is the person inside the car fighting G-forces, managing dehydration, processing information at 200 miles per hour, and making decisions that have consequences measured not in points but in consequences of mass and speed.

• Tags:
• Jimmie Johnson