What Do NASCAR Drivers Do on Race Day Other Than Driving the Car?

Ever wondered what happens on game day? Most athletes in the arena of competitive sports, like the NFL or the NBA, resort to the locker room and listen to their favorite music to get in that mental space. On that note, one might think that even the NASCAR drivers do the same moments before the race, right?

In a Joe Gibbs Racing video, the president of the Toyota team, Dave Alpern, revealed what their drivers actually do on race day. And interestingly, their errand starts hours before the actual event commences. “They actually have sponsor responsibilities on the day of a race,” said Alpern. “For our drivers, they go to the track and they have to work before they get in the race car.”

“Most drivers have a schedule on the race morning where they do hospitalities; where they’ll go from suite to suite or to different areas of the racetrack to meet their customers or executive of their partners, whether that’s Toyota or whether that’s the primary or the associate sponsor on their race car,” he added.

“Sometimes the drivers also have meetings with their coach, with the other teammates, or with their crew chief. But race morning is all preparation for race and doing different meet and greets with partners that make their career possible.”

Denny Hamlin urges drivers to speak up against restrictions imposed by the sponsors

It is nothing new that the drivers do what the sponsors expect them to do simply because the companies pay a lot of money for that amount of control. However, JGR driver Denny Hamlin is not one of them. This man has always been known for speaking his mind. In an episode of his podcast, Actions Detrimental, he urged his fellow drivers to do the same.

“It drives me crazy no one else has got the balls to be honest, “ he exclaimed. But he didn’t blame the drivers, as he was aware of the amount of influence that the sponsoring companies have over the behavior of these athletes. After all, he is a driver himself and an owner of a full-fledged race team. Nevertheless, Hamlin pointed out how it was hindering growth. “That’s not good. That’s stunting growth. That’s stunting star power,” he added.

Although Hamlin admitted that there are extremely talented drivers in NASCAR today, he feels like unless the drivers start taking a stand for themselves, the sport will never see another star like Dale Earnhardt or Tony Stewart.