NASCAR drivers take foot off pedal and put into sneakers

Being from the North (the great city of Canton, OH and home of the Pro Football Hall of Fame) I was very unaware of the Southen love of NASCAR. Not many people from my hometown watched NASCAR or knew anything about it. There was only one NASCAR lover that I knew of and he showed his support in his everyday wear of his beat-up Rusty Wallace hat while the rest of us stuck to the current status of King James and crew. My first step on my semi-southern school I quickly began to notice the extreme differences of the South and the North. Not only was there an extreme increase in sundresses, cowboy boots, pick-up trucks and camouflage there was also the sudden appearance of NASCAR fans. Students everywhere were wearing clothing, carrying backpacks, and talking about this sport that I had relatively no knowledge of.
Though I didn't know much about it I knew one thing was for sure when it came to NASCAR, the main concept involved people driving race cars that are traveling at a very fast speed around a track. First one to the finish won. Sounded a lot like track to me but with cars instead of humans. I began following NASCAR a little and learned a little bit about the sport. My initial discovery of NASCAR disproved my theory of track and NASCAR being similar. I didn't find as many "fit" guys as I expected to and began to question the validity of NASCAR as a "sport".

 
NASCAR drivers burn gas around the track while some have me questioning if they can burn calories

As I began to question NASCAR and the drivers who claimed themselves athletes I discovered a different brand of NASCAR drivers who were willing to compete in car and on foot. NASCAR driver Kasey Kahne, along with his charitable organization "The Kasey Kahne Foundation",  will be hosting a 5k charity event called the Five Kahne sponsored by Bank of America for the day after the Bank of America 500 in Charlotte. The Kayne Foundation benefits underprivileged and chronically ill children. The event is to held on Sunday, October 17th, at 8 a.m. where participants will run from the Bank of America Stadium to the NASCAR Hall of Fame (Ironically and luckily the buildings are exactly a 5k apart). Along with NASCAR Sprint Cup racing sponsorships, Bank of America has pledged $1 million toward education nonprofits for Kayne's Foundation event. Kahne invited all NASCAR drivers and teams to the event and so far drivers Jimmie Johnson and Joey Logano and ESPN broadcaster Marty Smith have all agreed to compete with Kahne in the race.

Kahne's Foundation event and his car, sponsored by Budweiser

When I discovered this event on ESPN I began to reconsider my feelings on the "sport" of NASCAR. The one thought left that I had was "How in shape could a NASCAR driver who is sponsored by Budweiser be?" The validity of my opinion of NASCAR rested on this question and I only knew one way to solve the answer. I must Google "Kasey Kahne". I nervously typed the name into the search bar on Google, half expecting to be disappointed in another average joe driver, when I was pleasantly surprised. Not only is Kahne in shape, he was featured in ESPN The Magazine's "Body Issue" where ESPN featured the top bodies in all of sports. Needless to say Kahne helped me in allowing myself to deem NASCAR "sport" worthy again and his charity event on Sunday has me anxious to see how fast these NASCAR drivers will be able to shift gears on foot.

Kahne stands up for NASCAR drivers as fit athletes