Stephen A. Smith doesn’t think NASCAR drivers are athletes, and Joey Logano thinks he knows exactly why.
“People like that have to make comments to stay relevant,” Logano said. “I mean, that’s part of their game, right? They gotta make big moments so people watch. He got exactly what he wanted — he got you talking about it, the whole industry talking about it. Now he’s relevant.”
“People like that have to make comments to stay relevant.”@joeylogano shares his thoughts on Stephen A. Smith’s take that NASCAR drivers are not athletes.
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Smith made the comments last week on his Mad Dog Sports Radio show on SiriusXM while discussing LeBron James’ place among the greatest athletes ever. When a caller suggested NASCAR legend Richard Petty as a nominee, Smith rejected the idea outright, then kept going, extending his argument to professional golfers as well.
“Come on, man. That don’t count,” Smith ranted. “You driving a car! I’m being honest, it’s a great sport. But come on, bro. Getting behind the wheel of a car is not the same. You can be behind the wheel of a car in your 60s and 70s, for crying out loud. A golfer is not an athlete. 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? If you’re out there doing stuff that grandmas and grandpas can do, I’m not gonna look at you that way.”
Smith leaned into the take repeatedly throughout his two-hour show, though he stopped short of calling Tiger Woods a non-athlete, acknowledging that some golfers might qualify based on their physical fitness, just not because of anything they actually do on a golf course.
Logano wasn’t particularly interested in debating the substance of it.
“I don’t put much weight into it personally because he’s never driven a race car,” Logano said. “I personally believe that we’re athletes because the mental aspect is important. Obviously, the physical piece is very challenging inside the race car that not many people can understand, so I don’t think I need to defend it personally. I think it’s just a way for people like that to stay keeping the job.”
It’s a topic that comes up more than Logano would probably like, given that Smith has made versions of this argument before. He wasn’t losing any sleep over it.
“I’ve done this long enough,” Logano added. “I don’t care.”
And that’s probably the worst possible outcome for Smith. He got the NASCAR community talking, got drivers responding on camera at Talladega, and the biggest name to weigh in essentially told him he wasn’t worth the energy. Not exactly the raging debate he was looking for.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.