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If you hang out with sports fans long enough and you disclose that you follow NASCAR, this issue is sure to come up. I’m a relative neophyte to what Jim Rome referred to as the “Left Turn League,” but in the short time I’ve been around the sport on more than a casual level, I can tell you this discussion gets spirited in a huge hurry.

See if you haven’t heard this before.“All they do is drive around in circles for four hours.” “All the drivers do is turn their steering wheels and push their feet to the floor. Anybody can do that.” “NASCAR stand for Non-Athletic driverS Circling Around Rednecks.” The list doesn’t end there, but the point they make is that the likes of Michael Jordan, Derek Jeter, Tom Brady and just about anyone else you can think of will be held up as examples of those being more athletic than your average NASCAR racer.

THEY’RE WRONG- AND I KNOW WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT.

To establish credibility,let me quickly give you my background. I’ve been a player of sports, a fan, a coach, and a commentator for 30 years. My current job as a radio sports guy requires me to be conversant on all of them. I’ve become quite familiar with the skills necessary to make a jump shot, hit a baseball, successfully complete a forward pass and yes, successfully take the checkered flag in a race.

With that out of the way, let’s consider the skills need to compete as a NASCAR driver. First you need good vision. Imagine driving 180 miles an hour, about 3 times faster than you will on the freeway on a typical day. Now, imagine 42 other guys are doing the same thing in a confined space.

Then, you need cat-quick reflexes. When you’re driving at break neck speeds, things come at you fast. Thankfully, besides the great vision, you have a crew chief and spotters to help guide you around the track. Nonetheless, if a driver 6 car lengths ahead of you wrecks, you will need to respond, very quickly to something you may not yet see yet. That’s where the advice to drive to the spot of the wreck comes in handy. You figure any collision in front of you at great speed and impact will result in scattering cars and debris. A flick of the steering wheel in the wrong direction and you may just find yourself collected into the collision.

Third- you must be conditioned for endurance. Let me paint a picture for you. The average race is 500 miles. That distance spans a trip from my home near Medford, Oregon to San Francisco. Now- do that with 40+ other guys driving at excessive speeds. Stressful- isn’t it? Not only that, there’s extreme heat inside your car….in excess of 100 degrees. You have no air conditioning. On top of that, you’re in a fire suit. Not real comfortable is it?

On top of that, there’s no rest stops, and no time to eat. If you’re lucky, you’ll get enough fluid to get you through the race. Not too much, though. Yeah, you need to time you’re eating just right so you don’t pee your pants during the race. OR worse.

Believe it or not, some strength is needed too. From time to time, a driver’s power steering will go out. You ever drove a car with manual steering? You’ll get a workout.

I haven’t even delved into the athleticism needed to be a member of the pit crew. Many are former college athletes. Think about the agility needed to get over the wall, the strength to carry tires, the quickness to get the tires on, pump the jack and the speed to perform the other tasks. And you say this isn’t a sport?

Many current NASCAR have excelled at other sports. Dale Jarrett has enough golf skills to be a PGA golfer. Kyle Petty was recruited to play college football and baseball. Elliott Sadler was headed for a college basketball career at James Madison before a knee injury changed that. Michael Waltrip has run marathons. Have you ever seen Mark Martin lift weights? Pretty buff for a guy 5-6. Carl Edwards is ripped and displays his athletic ability by doing a celebratory back flip when he wins.

Yes- things have changed since the days of Junior Johnson. Heck- even Bobby Allison had a training ritual. He’d hone his endurance by driving around rural Alabama with the windows up and the heat running full blast in the summertime.

Another illustration of challenging driving a “stock” car is comes from the ABC series last summer, “Fast Cars and Superstars.” Greats from other sports, namely John Elway, John Salley, Bill Cowher, and Serena Williams- among others- tried their hand at making their way around Lowe’s Motor Speedway in a number of challenges. Elway and rodeo champ Ty Murray got the hang of it, Salley and Williams looked thoroughly lost.

All of that to say, it takes athleticism to compete in NASCAR. I won’t deny that the machinery is a part of it in a way no other sport is, but like golf, I think it takes a different TYPE of skill from a stick and ball sport.

Can we agree on that? Heck, even Jim Rome has come over to our point of view.

NASCAR- How bad do you got it? Clever marketing slogan and an apt question for NASCAR Nation. From what I’ve seen, most have it pretty bad, and for the most part, that’s not bad.

It’s interesting to learn how different fans came upon their favorite driver, and the reasons are pretty diverse. Some go for the hometown boy. It helps that now we have a sport where drivers are from such far flung locations as Wisconsin, Southern California, New Jersey, Ohio, Arizona, Texas, and places you’d expect like North Carolina (home to NASCAR), and Florida (home to the legendary Daytona track). Folks have a lot to pick from. Others identify with particular personalities. I selected Jeff Gordon dues to his clean cut Christian lifestyle (which he was not shy about when he first started), his focus behind the wheel and because he was a Cali boy like me. Some of the ladies (especially the younger ones) root for drivers they think are hot. Kasey Kahne, Denny Hamlin and Junior come up a lot there. If you prefer the more mature driver, you’ll see votes pop up for Bobby Labonte and Mark Martin. Others are partial to manufacturers. If you don’t believe that, check out all the venom thrown Toyota’s way. And yet others think a particular kind of sponsor is cool. Budweiser has a lot of fans, and some are still in shock that Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (the rugged manly driver) is no longer the “face” of Bud, and he’s replaced by the boyish looking Kasey Kahne.

You get all kinds of reasons, but one thing NASCAR fans agree on is they LOVE their drivers. It’s a merchandiser’s dream. I can only imagine the (dare I say?) BILLIONS spent on mugs, posters, miniature cars, tee shirts, hats, tank tops, jackets, and yes, even costumes (my little guy is going out as Junior on Halloween). What’s next, NASCAR toilet paper? Hmmm, wiping my nether regions with Tony Stewart, kind of amusing if you ask me. People report getting all kinds of crazy when their drivers win, and they are sad or furious when something bad happens to them. Such misfortune has spawned the most outrageous conspiracy theories known to mankind. JFK conspiracy? That’s nothing compared to NASCAR loading the deck in favor of Hendrick Motor Sports golden boys Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, over say he slightly less (in the opinions of some) photogenic and congenial Tony Stewart or Robbie Gordon. I won’t even go down the road of how some have speculated that DEI owner Teresa Earnhardt has sabotoged the engines of her estranged step-son. It’s crazy what a passionate fan will dream up. It’s like the days when the ancient Greeks would blame a volcanic eruption on Zeus, because he was mad that his wine tasted bad! We laugh, but we do the same doggoned thing.

If you’ve been to a few NASCAR message boards, then you know that such passion can give rise to conflict. I admit to getting very upset when a Yahoo Answers! poster called my favorite driver a…….loser? I argued back that it would stink to be her when Jeff Gordon won his 5th Cup. I was also quick to point out the 79 wins and 4 titles. I could be postulating a conspiracy theory of my own when I say that I found it curious that my “thumbs down” count seemed unusually high that day. I’ll admit to being bothered. Why should I care what some (more than likely) 15 year old thinks? I dunno, but it made me think about how fans of the same sport treat each other.

In the wake of it, I’ve developed my own code of conduct. Really, it’s a re-adoption of a code that has gotten lost when being angered by what I feel are childish comments on a message board.

1) Be proud of your driver. In doing so, think for a moment how your conduct reflects on the driver, and other fans of the same guy. I’ll be the first to say I’m ashamed of how some other Gordon fans behave towards Junior Nation. I’m not talking about linguini spined political correctness, but give a person a right to like who they like, even if you can’t stand the guy.

2) Talking smack ain’t necessarily trashy..if you keep it in context. Comments that are to the effect of “My driver is better than yours” is no big deal. A little teasing about Gordon and Kahne being pretty boys isn’t really all that nasty. While not really true, calling Earnhardt fans hicks isn’t out of bounds on some level. But it goes WAY too far when people call Gordon or Earnhardt gay, or call Kahne a “porn star.” I really hate non-NASCAR fans calling fans of the motorsport inbreeds. There’s a line there, and I think most reasonable people know where it is- yet it gets crossed a lot!

3) And please, for the love of Mike, don’t HATE me because I root for a driver that is alternately loved and reviled. Just because I root for the Rainbow Warrior DOES NOT mean I’m gay, a yuppy, or that I necessarily hate the Earnhardts and Earnhardt fans. Actually, I root for both. Me liking Gordon does not make me a bad person. IF you’re off the side of the road with a flat, I’ll pull over and help you. If you’re being attacked, I’ll defend you. And I will NOT, I repeat NOT dislike you if you prefer Tony Stewart or Kevin Harvick over my favorite, even though I think there are times the two of them are petulant jerks. It doesn’t make you a bad person. I honestly think there are some who can’t separate the two.

How refreshing it would be if we focused a little more often on what we have in common. We love auto racing and NASCAR in particular. Our pastime is reviled by many as being the sport of choice for morons, hicks and goons. We’d help ourselves a lot if we’d think a little more often about how our behavior reflects on like-minded people. Let’s enjoy the race. I’ll root for the #24 Dupont Chevrolet, you can root for the #9 UAW Dodge, the #20 Home Depot Chevy, the #17 De Walt Ford or whomever you want. Anyway, if you’re anything like me (and I bet you are on this score), you have more than one driver you root for.

Sure, tease me about how “pretty” “Jeffy Pooh’s” car is. I might return a barb about how Tony Stewart looks a bit like the Great Pumpkin in his racing suit (that comes close to crossing a line, but I think most will give me a pass). Let’s have fun with it, enjoy our common bonds during our virtual barbecues and let’s not throw a bunch of mud on each other. We have more than enough outside our community doing it.

Why can’t we be friends?