Watching sports can release copious amounts of dopamine and adrenaline in your body. It can make you feel loyal towards the team or player you support. It can reduce stress and make you feel energetic after a long day of work. However, those may not the greatest of the reasons why people are so obsessed with top-tier sports like NASCAR.
The biggest attraction of stock car racing is probably the element of unpredictability in it. The man who lifts the cup one day might sit at the end of the herd just the next week. A former Hendrick Motorsports legend knows all about that element and, while talking about the golden boy of his former team, he said that anything could happen on race day.
No bets on Chase Elliott, but nobody knows what is coming next
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Look at Dale Jarrett‘s win in the year 2005 at Talladega. Jarrett had not seen the face of victory in two and a half years. To make things worse, he had just led two laps in the entire season and never even had a top-10 in three months. However, he won at Talladega Superspeedway, after leading just two laps of the entire race.
In a conversation with Chopper and the Professor, former HMS legend Steve Letarte reflected on this very aspect of the sport. When talking about Chase Elliott’s chances of winning a race, he said, “He’s already the favorite… I don’t believe it enough. I’d love to see the guy performing, but what I love about sports is it doesn’t matter how popular they are.”
Since Yesterday’s race was called off due to the rain, still 4 races to go until the round of 16 commences. But as Chase Elliott found himself into the fall, his chances of making it to the playoffs are only getting smaller by the day. But looking at this, Letarte said that pressure can bring out the best or the worst in an athlete.
“I think that when you put people in a vise, you don’t know where they’re gonna show up. I mean, he (Chase) could come out and win. He could come out and run his normal 12th,” he explained.
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The unpredictability of sport and the #48
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Steve took the example of an eminent golfer who shocked everyone at the Inverness Club, Ohio. He exclaimed, “Nobody liked Brian Harman in the open, but guess what, he whipped their a**, he won it, get over it, he earned it”. According to him, it does not matter what you have in your resume or how much you have won so far. If you cannot pull up your socks and win on the able day, nothing else matters. You lose. As simple as that.
The current commentator for NBC Sports preferred the other HMS icon over Chase Elliott. While talking about the unpredictability of the sport, he also talked about the unpredictability of the driver of #48.
He argued, “Bowman might be the most disrespected numbers in the garage. He needs a PR campaign. Because, I tell everybody, he is the most overlooked driver that wins 2 or 3 races a year.”
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You seldom hear someone say that Alex Bowman is their guy, or he is the one they are putting their bets on. But Letarte said that despite his death-defying Sprint car injury, he is running without a break, which is quite impressive.
To back his opinion, he argued, “He (Bowman) has a minuscule amount of top 5 versus his percentage of wins. Like when he wins, he’s just kind of like poof, here I am!”
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Anybody in Bowman’s place would not have been able to drive a stock car after having broken their back. So, Letarte has hopes for this 30-year-old Chevy star. He believes that maybe he could secure another unpredictable win and shock the entire community.