My wife was watching the Bass Pro MBNA 500 from Atlanta on Fox when I overheard an announcer say this: "Of the other sports the one most like this is soccer. There's no time outs on the field. But they aren't going 190 miles per hour."
"But they aren't going 190 miles per hour?" That sounds like a crack against the athleticism of soccer players. Man, I hate ESPN, er I mean Fox Sports.
We all know you must be one of the worlds elite atheletes to press down with your right foot AND turn left at the same time.
You should try driving one of those things sometime. At least in soccer you don't have to worry about dying if you run into the signboards. --------------------------------------------- I refuse to start a new topic on this, but during the Washington State 3A girls' basketball title game telecast Saturday night, the broadcasters were discussing a player who also happened to be the captain of the soccer team, and one of them said: "She plays like a soccer player -- tough, hardnosed and low to the ground." So there.
All Dale wanted to do was make a right turn. WAS THAT SO WRONG? ....There, that should get me a table next to the kitchen...in HELL!
I think in today's race they were averaging low 170s MPH. I know in qualifying they were in the 190 range. Good race today too. The Ford's and Dodge's really sucked today though. I think Matt Kenseth's ride was one of the few Ford's that actually finished today.
tcmahoney - The eagerness to be daring in taking the risk of accidentally running into a signboard does not equate making the driver an athlete. I just think it makes them crazy. I have to admit: I don't get auto racing. Watching fast cars make continual left hand turns is not exciting to me. However, I am more than likely missing all the intricacies (sp?) of the sport of auto racing. There are millions who "get" the sport, and more power to them.
One word: Pitstops. It's nice that these "athletic" driver have the time out of sitting their asses in a car turning left all day to talk trash about "lazy" soccer players dribbling, passing, tackling and shooting for 90 minutes. At least our MLS Cup last year had a better conclusion than the rainy Daytona 500.
Re: Re: Overheard during the NASCAR race.... I don't know, the Galaxy winning? Doesn't sound that great to me
To play devil's advocate, diving in soccer won't triple your insurance premiums. That said, and I don't like any format of auto racing, only a stupidface would actually think that driving in NASCAR doesn't take skills, strength and stamina, that is to say, need to be an athlete.
Maybe not NASCAR, but if I recall didn't exactly that happen in Formula One racing last year, where two cars on the same team rigged the outcome so that the "correct" driver would get the points for the standings? Sounds like a "dive" to me.
It wasn't so much rigging, but there's a definite hierarchy in Formula 1 teams, so if the #2 driver has an order to pull over and let his teammate pass him, then he's supposed to do so. Supposedly, the governing body has made team orders illegal. So we'll see. My guess is that they just won't be quite as blatant anymore.
Nascar sucks! CART & Formula 1 kick ass!! Half of all CART and F1 fans are soccer fans! It is truly a great cross marketing platform.
This occured last year at the A-1 Ring in Austria. Rubens Barichello of Ferrari had dominated the race, but he was told to pull over and let his Ferrari teamate Michael Schumacher win the race so he can collect maximum points towards the championship. Scumacher wound up winning the championship by the largest margin of points in history. In hindsight it was a very unecessary move, and it damaged the sporting spirit of F1.
Rally is about the only racing I will watch with any interest. There's something about rolling your car over and just keep going. Watching cars drive in a big circle for four hours is a bit tedeous. But it is fun to watch NASCAR on the road courses.