What It Feels Like to Ride in a NASCAR Cup Car at Daytona

I’m standing in the pitlane at Daytona International Speedway – the mid-summer Florida sun beating down on me. In the distance I can hear the roar of a NASCAR V8 barrelling down the back straight at 185 mph or so.

“When he stops, hop over the pit wall and jump in quickly, we’re tight for time,” says the stressed-looking, sunburnt Toyota employee managing our ride alongs.

I wiggle my admittedly wiry figure through the window and slide into the rock hard race seat of the two-seater Toyota Camry NASCAR Cup car. Another Toyota team member does up my harness for me. They weren’t just being nice – I can barely move with the weird padded neck brace they’ve given me and I can hardly see out of the ill-fitting helmet. It’s unbearably hot in here, probably somewhere around 120 degrees. I’ve already gained a massive amount of respect for what NASCAR drivers do and me and reigning NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series champion Martin Truex Jr. haven’t even set off yet.

I admit to being a bit nervous prior to hopping in the car, but my nervousness is immediately replaced with elation as soon as we begin to accelerate and approach Turn 1. The Toyota V8 sends a violent vibration through the whole car, rattling the roll cage and shaking the fiberglass bodywork. We’re still getting up to speed, but already the g-forces through turns 1 and 2 are ridiculous. My body is being pushed into the seat with force I can only describe as otherwordly. My neck is being pressed against the outside of the seat head restraint. I can barely move, and I’m wearing a big, stupid grin on my face.

We exit turn 2 and the absurdly steep banking at Daytona (31 degrees, to be exact) levels out. This track, built back in 1958, is massive. Even at 185 mph, the back straight seems to go on forever. I turn my head to get a look at Martin. He appears relaxed, lightly gripping the steering wheel as he gently tosses the car into turn 3. Again, the suspension loads up and lowers, my entire body is forced downward and my head is pressed hard against the head restraint. I wonder how anybody deals with this much discomfort for hours on end.

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We head into the banked tri-oval and approach Turn 1 again, this time at full chat. I try again to turn my head to look at Martin’s technique, but I can’t. It feels like there’s something blocking my head, so I begin to feel around to investigate. There was nothing there- gravity just had a very, very tight grip on me and was stopping my head from going anywhere. The forces at play here are brain scrambling. Is subjecting your body to this good for you, especially if you have to do it week after week? Can your brain take all that blood being forced to one side of your head for hours on end? Martin doesn’t seem concerned about it anyway.

We approach the pitlane as my 3 lap ridealong winds down. The racing obsessed speed freak in me wants to stay out here all day, but I’m ridiculously hot. I’m feeling a bit nauseous from the heat and my clothes underneath the full-body firesuit are drenched in sweat. I can’t wait to get this helmet and head sock off and escape into the air conditioning.

You’ve probably heard someone say that NASCAR is for simple folks and that it’s easy because “all they have to do is turn left.” Well let me tell you, turning left, especially at a super speedway like Daytona, is damn hard. I can confidently say that after riding passenger in a Cup car at Daytona with no other traffic. I can’t even begin to comprehend how it must feel with 39 other cars around with some pissed off good ‘ol boys behind the wheel trying to wreck you. If someone you know makes fun of NASCAR for its obsession with left turns, it’s likely they’d be terrified if they rode along with Martin. These things are fast.

As for NASCAR, its popularity is waning in the US and the series could soon be at a crossroads, with the France family rumored to be exploring a sale of the series. Attendance numbers are down and with big names like Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. out of the series, fans are perhaps feeling a bit disassociated with the sport. It’s far from doomed, however. In the end, I think NASCAR is having a moment similar to junk food. More people are trading in the bacon cheeseburger for a green smoothie than ever before, but we can’t give up our guilty pleasures for good. Soccer might be rising in popularity, but plenty of us will always want to watch 850 hp stock cars try and wreck each other as they drive in a circle. It’s the American way.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go get my neck adjusted.