“No Clue About Racing!” Kevin Harvick Exposes Stephen A. Smith over Controversial NASCAR Comments   

2014 Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick got the perfect response to Stephen A. Smith’s controversial comments about NASCAR.

“No Clue About Racing!” Kevin Harvick Exposes Stephen A. Smith over Controversial NASCAR Comments   

Stephen A. Smith and Kevin Harvick (Via nytimes.com and IMAGO)

Broadcaster Stephen A. Smith made a career for himself making outrageous hot takes and his most-recent target was NASCAR. He called the stock car racing driver non-athletic, completely disregarding the physical challenges a racer faces. This got the attention of 2014 Cup champion Kevin Harvick and he didn’t hold back in his response.

On the latest episode of Speed on Fox podcast, the ex-SHR driver pointed out that Smith is someone that doesn’t know anything about racing. The veteran is open to genuine criticism from personal’s that knows the sport, but he believes the likes of the Fox Sports broadcaster should keep their opinion to themselves.

Here’s the deal with Stephen A. Smith: this guy has no clue about racing. And I don’t mind people criticizing our sport or our drivers or our people, but if you don’t know anything about racing, just keep your opinion to yourself because you shouldn’t even have an opinion if you don’t know anything about a sport.

Kevin Harvick said via Speed on Fox.

Furthermore, Kevin Harvick recalled the time when he used smart watches from Polar as part of an experiment to learn how much calories drivers burn during races. It was found that he burned 3,200 calories in a 500-mile race and this took the fitness company by shock as they thoughts it was a machine malfunction. They tested again and realized a NASCAR driver calory burn rate and heart rate are similar to marathon runners, who are considered really athletic. It was the perfect response to Stephen A. Smith’s comments.

I did the first event, and I think I burned 3,200 calories. It’s a 500-mile race, so you’re in the car for a long time, hot day, (we) didn’t have a lot of cautions that day… They called me the next week, and they said, ‘Hey, we’re going to send you another watch, there’s something wrong with that watch. We think we got a bad reading, so you’re just a race driver, there’s no way you’re expending that much energy.’ So, the guy from Polar calls me, and he says, ‘Hey, you know, the first one is correct, the second one confirmed everything that we had going on. The only thing that we see with that much of a calorie burn or constant heart rate are marathon runners,’ and he was totally caught off guard.

Kevin Harvick added.

Bubba Wallace is unbothered by Stephen A. Smith’s comments unlike Kevin Harvick

Ahead of the Talladega race, 23XI Racing star driver Bubba Wallace was asked about the comments from Smith. He admitted that though there are some drivers that are un-athletic, the majority are on the same level as other professional sportspersons in terms of fitness. The veteran also admitted that the non-athletic comments isn’t going anyway and added that he doesn’t have much to say about Smith’s comments on different topics.

Bubba Wallace
Bubba Wallace (Via IMAGO)

Yeah. Um you know, it is different, right? I think there’s a lot of non-athletic drivers. Um but there’s also a lot of athletic drivers I feel like that we can hold our own in in a multitude of sports…It’s going to be there. We’re driving a car like you said, right? Um and so it is what it is. I got no hard feelings to him because it’s just something that he’s never done, right? And I don’t know what sports he did play. This is a genuine question. Um, but everyone has their opinion.

Bubba Wallace said.

The comments from Michael Jordan’s driver are on point and many among the drivers seems to have the same feeling about the comments from Mr. Smith. It would be interesting to see how the beef is going evolve in the coming years.

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