Driver's fitness article from ACSM or 1 more reason NASCAR sucks
 

Road Course = elite athletes
Oval Course = couch potato

Yup, that's the verdict of the American College of Sports Medicine. Well not exactly, but circuit driver's show the same physical patterns and oxygen use as top athletes in other sports. Not so much for the oval guys. So if you're driving NASCAR this weekend, go ahead and load up on the Doritos. They'll make more. ;-)

http://www.acsm.org/publications/new...nds120902.html

Good post, thankyou!

That's very interesting. But I find it hard to believe that the IRL guys (Kanaan, Wheldon, Castroneves, etc) could be considered "couch potatoes," as they're oval drivers, too.

Mentally, I'm wiped out after a day on the road course. I've noticed though that my exercise regiment on the treadmill has improved my mental stamina, and I don't crash out from exhaustion at 7:30pm anymore. Maybe I'm more relaxed that I used to be too.

On a personal level, I'm not getting a physical work out when driving at 7/10th to 9/10ths. There's no way I take in as much oxygen as a jog, for example, that has the same duration. I'm using jogging as a comparison because when I'm on a road course, I'm not really racing...just DE's. The only thing that is sore on my body after seven 20-minute sessions is my right palm, and that's due to shifting (had to clarify that for those of you who have dirty minds)

But...I have noticed on numerous occasions that professional motorcycle and race car drivers look like they just ran a marathon...gasping for air as they try to conduct a coherent interview with the media. I think that obervation alone is convincing of the athletic demands put on drivers. I guess that's just an indication that I better start turning in faster laps, as I'm obviously going for a Sunday drive when I should be hauling more ass down that road course.

Someone should dig out an article on F1 fitness specifically.

They are in olympic like conditions

there's 2 races where NASCAR does runs on non-oval tracks...
Infineon and Watkins Glen, if they do less oval tracks and more tracks like the two i mentioned it would be a little better, but yes... F1 owns NASCAR and watching them go around in a circle all day is boring

:icon18:

I really enjoy watching those fat nascars going around Sears and Watkins. At least most of the nascar drivers have learned how to handle a road course, and will drive their own cars. I remember when I first started watching it, most of the field were guns for hire

Still it would be intense to drive around an oval going that fast with that many cars beside you.