Jeff Burton on if NASCAR drivers are athletes

In the wake of Jimmie Johnson's ESPY snub for best male athlete, there was a lot of questing by those outside of our sport if drivers are athletes. Golden Tate, who aparently is an NFL player, said no, igniting a twitter controversy. Who better to weigh in on this topic than Jeff Burton, the "mayor" of the garage. This is from a media session at Bristol in August 2008.

Credit: gengle01

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[AJM28211]

@UltimateEEnEFan how do you figure that? Football/basketball/baseball players etc, depend solely on the abilities of their bodies. Racecar drivers are only as good as the car their driving. In no other sport is the "athlete" more dependent on his/her gear. Yeah its a sport, but not an athletic completion.

[GeneralTyler4]

@SL8R71, You make no sense dumbass.

[Greenfox8892]

Jeff Burton made so many good points in this interivew, plus many Nascar drivers donate millions of dollars to charity every year.

[awalker28]

Great explanation by Jeff right there. NASCAR drivers are athletes and it's ridiculous that we are even questioning this. Anyway great video Rocky as usual. Liked. :)

[UltimateEEnEFan]

ESPN is full of dumbasses. Need I say more?

They only care about basketball and football. They don't give a rats ass about anything else unless its a major event (I.E. Daytona, Indy, Wimbledon, Stanley Cup, World Cup) and even then it's minimal.

Now this is sickening. How could you be so ignorant and say these men and women are not athletes? Bullshit. They are more of an athlete than any football/basketball player will ever be.