A recent survey of the American public revealed that 6.24% of them believe they could jump into a NASCAR machine and win a race right off. 32.89% of people believe that they could turn a lap without crashing their cars. It is no secret that these numbers are absurd considering the extreme training that it takes to handle a stock car, so Brad Keselowski took it upon himself to set things straight.
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The former Cup Series champion responded to a tweet from reporter Jeff Gluck that mentioned the survey and wrote down fresh numbers based on his experience. He believes that only 1 million of the roughly 330 million American populace can start the car, use the clutch, and get it off the pit road without help. Only 10,000 could run a lap time that meets the basic NASCAR eligibility.
From my years of XP, I’d estimate the following of my fellow 330 Americans:
Only 1m could start the car, use a clutch and get off pit road to make a lap without help.
.003%10k could run a lap time around others within a second to meet NASCAR eligibility.
.00003%1k could win… https://t.co/6SvT7D03GC
— Brad Keselowski (@keselowski) August 20, 2024
And 1,000 could win a race on a great day with a perfect race car. He finally wrote that 100 of his fellow citizens could win a race without an ideal day or car. Keselowski’s numbers sure do bring down the expectations of the many who think they could easily tame the NextGen car. But he does still appear to be overestimating the number of people who could win a race.
Even if one does get the car off the pit road and onto the track it would be quite the pressing task to be able to complete more than a handful of laps without crashing. After all, even legends like Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick struggle to handle their cars after taking a break for a few months.
The NextGen car was designed to not be an easy drive
When NASCAR tested the 7th generation of cars at Charlotte in 2021, it was surrounded by driver complaints about how hard it was to handle. However, the officiating body did not view this as a problem. Rather, it was what it intended to get all along. John Probst, the Senior Vice President of Racing Innovation, confirmed that the protests were music to his ears.
“We don’t want the cars to be easy to drive,” he said to the press. “We’ve always said we want the best drivers running up front.”
Currently, in the car’s third year of use, drivers have adjusted to the new way of things. But the question to ask is, if Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson struggled to handle it for the first time, how would the neighborhood John Doe fare?
