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Stephen A. Smith didn’t make many friends in NASCAR circles when he labeled drivers as non-athletes.
“Come on, man. That doesn’t count. You drive a car!” Smith said last month on his SiriusXM show. “I’m being honest. It’s a great sport. But come on, brother. Getting behind the wheel of a car is not the same.
“You can be behind the wheel of a car between the ages of 60 and 70, for God’s sake.”
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Jeff Gordon and Kyle Larson sit in the Arrow McLaren pit on May 18, 2023, during the third day of practice for the 107th Indianapolis 500 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. (Kristin Enzor/For IndyStar/USA TODAY NETWORK)
Well, Kyle Larson and Jeff Gordon heard what Smith had to say and naturally challenged him.
“My first response is, do we really want to give clicks and attention to Stephen A.? I feel like that’s what he’s asking for there,” Gordon began during a recent interview with Pak Gazette Digital.
“But at the same time, he clearly doesn’t know much about the sport, and he doesn’t know what it takes to be an athlete in motorsports. There’s no question about the mental fatigue it takes to be in the car for hours, the competitiveness and the things that make drivers true athletes. It’s just in a different sense than how an athlete is perceived in a stick-and-ball sport.”
Larson, the reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion, then challenged Smith, or anyone else, to take a lap in a race car “without feeling like you were going to die.”
“Everyone has a slightly different definition of what an athlete might mean to them. So their definition is different from the way I would feel about it. Do I get angry when I hear someone say we’re not athletes? No.”
Kyle Larson hits the wall in turn two during the Indianapolis 500 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis on May 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Jamie Gallagher)
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“Yes,” Gordon interjected.
But Larson is a little more understanding.
“I just accept that they won’t understand it, because they’ll never be able to get in a race car that goes 200 miles an hour. If they did, I don’t think they could go for a lap without feeling like they were going to die,” Larson continued.
“And then you factor in three-and-a-half-hour long races and a 150-degree car with an elevated heart rate of probably 150 for three hours, with a peak of, for me, it would be 190. I think then they would quickly realize that even though you’re not throwing a ball through a hoop, this is definitely a sport and definitely a difficult one where you have to be an athlete, maybe more on the endurance side.”
Gordon said he recently invited Jason Kelce to go for a spin and even drive a car on a track.
NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon speaks during a press conference at Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee on April 12, 2026. (Randy Sartin/Image Images)
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“I’m pretty sure he would have a different opinion on that,” Gordon said. “Just ask him.”
