What I Learned from Watching NASCAR: Full Speed.

NASCAR Full Speed is a 5 episode documentary on Netflix about NASCAR drivers competing to be a contender in the NASCAR Cup Series Championship. 

Before watching the series I shared stereotypes about NASCAR like the sport is boring because all they do is go in circles, NASCAR drivers aren’t real athletes, and that NASCAR is a rich white man’s sport.

After watching the documentary, here is my take.

In the first two minutes of the first episode, Denny Hamlin is trying to validate NASCAR drivers as real athletes. He quotes, “There is no other athlete in any other sport that will ever run a lap faster than I can run a lap. It’s impossible.”

Well, no one is impressed when you run the fastest lap behind 750hp. But running the fastest lap in the world with your own two legs is quite impressive. 

Hamlin’s corny comparison to other athletes did nothing to make me believe that NASCAR drivers are real athletes. NASCAR is a sport, so technically NASCAR drivers are athletes. But textbook definition of what an athlete is doesn’t hold the same weight as what humans define as athleticism.

There’s definitely athleticism to driving a race car. It’s not all about what’s under the hood. They obviously have to be in good physical shape because I have yet to see a fat NASCAR driver. 

But the attraction of NASCAR is about what these drivers can do with their cars, and it’s still confusing on what exactly makes a NASCAR driver better thana another. 

Lebron James has broken NBA records and will go down in history as one of the best of the best NBA players. But NBA enthusiasts can easily decipher what makes Michael Jordan a better player than Lebron James.

It’s not easy to determine what makes Ryan Blaney, the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series winner, better than Denny Hamlin who has won 51 trophies in NASCAR. Is Ryan Blaney the best of the best because he won the Cup Series, or is Denny Hamlin better because he won more trophies?

I learned that the Confederate flag wasn’t banned from NASCAR until 2020. And it took the advocacy of a Black driver, Bubba Wallace to have it removed.

These white male drivers looked at the Confederate flag as a badge of honor. That NASCAR is a good ol’boy sport. Many drivers and fans didn’t mind the Confederate flag simply because it helped keep the sport mostly white.

It makes no sense that the National Anthem is played at NASCAR yet you have fans in the stands flying flags of treason. 

Although, I do believe that NASCAR is heading in a different direction where we’ll see more DOC (drivers of color). I liked seeing that Michael Jordan is the team owner of 23XI. And Rajah Caruth became the third black driver in NASCAR history to win a national series race after capturing the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Before you know it we may see a series end with the top five drivers being DOCs.