{"id":620212,"date":"2026-04-22T03:26:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T03:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/620212\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T03:26:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T03:26:07","slug":"front-row-motorsports-mocks-stephen-a-smith-issues-challenge-after-his-nascar-call-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/620212\/","title":{"rendered":"Front Row Motorsports mocks Stephen A. Smith, issues challenge after his NASCAR call-out"},"content":{"rendered":"

A prominent NASCAR<\/a> team is firing back at ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith after comments he made suggesting drivers are not athletes. In fact, Front Row Motorsports mocked Smith, then issued him a challenge.<\/p>\n

Smith made headlines on Tuesday when discussing where LeBron James<\/a> ranks as one of the greatest athletes ever. Listeners called into the Mad Dog Sports Radio show on SiriusXM and one suggested Richard Petty should be in the mix.<\/p>\n

Stephen A. Smith was aghast. He instantly barked back.<\/p>\n

\u201cCome on, man. That don\u2019t count. You driving a car!\u201d Stephen A. Smith said<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019m being honest, it\u2019s a great sport. But come on, bro. Getting behind the wheel of a car is not the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

He would go on to question whether NASCAR drivers are even athletes. He opined quickly. He also took aim at golfers, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can be behind the wheel of a car in your 60s and 70s for crying out loud,\u201d Smith said. \u201cA golfer is not an athlete. A NASCAR driver is not an athlete. Just because you\u2019ve got to walk the course for 18 holes for four days, that don\u2019t make you an athlete.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, Front Row Motorsports spoke up for the NASCAR world, which immediately bristled at Stephen A. Smith\u2019s characterization. The racing team mocked Smith\u2019s unique delivery in a direct message reportedly delivered to his Instagram account<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cStephen A., what\u2019s going on, my man?\u201d the message read. \u201cWe heard that ABSOLUTELY PREPOSTEROUS take of yours claiming NASCAR drivers aren\u2019t athletes, and quite frankly, we were stunned. Stunned!<\/p>\n

\u201cSo here\u2019s what we\u2019re gonna do; we\u2019re inviting you to step out of that studio, come down here, and hop in for a ride-along with one of our three Cup Series drivers. Then you can tell the world how \u2018not athletic\u2019 it feels going 180 miles per hour, pulling G-forces, and fighting that wheel for three straight hours. We\u2019ll be waiting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Will Stephen A. Smith take FRM up on the offer and hop in the car with Noah Gragson, Todd Gilliland or Zane Smith? Guess we\u2019ll have to wait and see.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A prominent NASCAR team is firing back at ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith after comments he made suggesting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620213,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-620212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620212","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=620212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}