![\"u.s.](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/54270b42-1940-4035-8bea-b60fcf638107.jpeg\" "\\"U.S.")
<\/p>\nDue to the g-forces NASCAR drivers endure during a race, US Air Force Thunderbirds pilots say they can execute maneuvers when giving rides to the competitors that they couldn\u2019t perform with people who don\u2019t operate high-performance vehicles on a daily basis.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got to show them some dog fighting,\u201d Maj. Samuel Larson said after he and Lt. Col. Tyler Keener gave rides in their F-16 Fighting Falcons to John Hunter Nemecheck and Connor Zilisch. \u201cThey handled it well above average. Both got into 9.2 gs, which is pretty impressive for our first flight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Related Story<\/p>\n
The Thunderbirds are based at Nellis Air Force Base which is located behind Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Even though the Thunderbirds are an aerial demonstration team, they are part of the United States active combat force and can be combat-ready within 72 hours. Nellis is also the home of the 57th Wing, so it\u2019s not unusual to see fighter jets practicing maneuvers while attending an event at the 1.5-mile track.<\/p>\n
For 16 consecutive years, the Thunderbirds have performed the flyover for the season opening Daytona 500. This year prior to the prestigious event was when Nemechek and Zilisch received their Thunderbird indoctrination. <\/p>\n
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NurPhoto\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Keener said they were initially given clearance for an unrestricted climb up to 10,000 feet from the Daytona Beach, Florida, airport. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe stayed as low to the runway as we could and then pulled straight up in the air, 7 gs on that initial pull, and then right up to 10,000 feet in a matter of seconds, and then out to the air space to do everything,\u201d Kenner said. \u201cThat was totally based on their (the drivers\u2019) attitude, their level of enjoyment, and their capability. <\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like 9 gs didn\u2019t sound crazy to me until you\u2019re holding it for three, four, five seconds.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if drivers get sick, we\u2019re always confident that drivers are going to be incredible passengers in the jet based on how they can handle machinery and performance and how fit they are. At one point we got to the negative-g portion of the (flight) sortie. I have a bag that I typically carry with me with some of my gear in it. We\u2019re upside down pushing a negative g, and my bag flew back to Connor and he\u2019s like, \u2018I have your stuff.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
During a race, NASCAR drivers typically experience 3 to 5 gs of lateral force while on an oval\u2019s banked turns. The steeper the banking the higher the g forces. The 3 to 4 gs a driver feels are comparable to what astronauts feel during a shuttle launch. At 5 gs, a driver\u2019s head and helmet can weigh more than 60 to 70 pounds.<\/p>\n
Related Story<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were a couple of times we did 9 gs,\u201d Zilisch said. \u201cI think the thing that surprised me most was how long it lasts. You can get up to 50, 60, 70 Gs in a really bad (racing) crash, but it\u2019s instantaneous. I felt like 9 gs didn\u2019t sound crazy to me until you\u2019re holding it for three, four, five seconds.\u201d <\/p>\n
Larson said they try to give their passengers a \u201cheads up\u201d regarding a maneuver, but that doesn\u2019t always happen,<\/p>\n
\u201cThere might have been a couple times I forgot to warn John Hunter (Nemechek),\u201d Larson said with a smile. <\/p>\n
![\"nascar](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/c27c6016-d12a-4506-a174-e23af7f52087.jpeg\" "\\"NASCAR")
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Sean Gardner\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Nemechek described flying with the Thunderbirds as \u201cprobably one of the most amazing experiences of my life.\u201d He admitted he was \u201cpretty close\u201d to getting sick at one point, because he felt like his stomach was halfway up his throat. <\/p>\n
Zilisch echoed Nemechek\u2019s sentiments, calling it \u201cone of, if not the coolest\u201d experience he\u2019s ever had. <\/p>\n
\u201cEverything that they do inside the cockpit of those things, it\u2019s pretty incredible,\u201d Zilisch said. <\/p>\n
![\"Lettermark\"](\"https:\/\/www.autoweek.com\/_assets\/design-tokens\/autoweek\/static\/images\/logos\/lettermark.de67f45.svg?primary=%2523000\")
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A North Carolina native, Deb Williams is an award-winning motorsports journalist who is in her fourth decade covering auto racing. In addition to covering the sport for United Press International, she has written motorsports articles for several newspapers, magazines and websites including espnW.com<\/a>, USA Today, and The Charlotte Observer. Her awards include the American Motorsports Media Award of Excellence, two-time National Motorsports Press Association writer of the year, and two-time recipient of the Russ Catlin award. She also has won an award in the North Carolina Press Association\u2019s sports feature category.\u00a0 During her career, Deb has been managing editor of GT Motorsports magazine and was with Winston Cup Scene and NASCAR Winston Cup Scene for 18 years, serving as the publication\u2019s editor for 10 years. In 2024 she was inducted into the NMPA Hall of Fame.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Due to the g-forces NASCAR drivers endure during a race, US Air Force Thunderbirds pilots say they can…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":529984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,782,208053,784,1642,634,208052,82,183339],"class_list":["post-529983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-aa065be9-72d3-4a4f-abce-384ef2b4bd52","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-locale-us","tag-nascar","tag-shorttitle-thunderbirds-take-nascar-drivers-to-9-gs","tag-sports","tag-subsection-nascar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/529984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}