Two All-Time NASCAR Greats Fire Back At 'Clueless' Stephen A. Smith

Stephen A. Smith continues to make enemies of the NASCAR world.

The ESPN personality, who stars on "First Take" every morning, has made it clear that he doesn't believe NASCAR drivers are serious athletes. He's not willing to put the best of NASCAR in the same group as elite NBA, NFL, MLB, etc. athletes.

"Come on, man. That don't count. You driving a car!" Smith said last month on his SiriusXM radio show. "I'm being honest. It's a great sport. But come on, bro. Getting behind the wheel of a car is not the same.

"You can be behind the wheel of a car in your 60s and 70s for crying out loud."

Stephen A. Smith received a lot of blowback for his comments on the NASCAR world. They're not done expressing their disappointment, either.

Two all-time great NASCAR drivers have sounded off on Smith, while admitting that they don't want to give him the attention he clearly seeks.

NASCAR greats sound off on Smith

Both Jeff Gordon and Kyle Larson, two of the best drivers of the 21st century, have sounded off on clueless Stephen A.

"My first response is, do we really want to give clicks and attention to Stephen A. for, I feel like that's what he's asking for there," Gordon said during a recent interview with Fox News Digital.

"But at the same time, clearly he doesn't know a whole lot about the sport, and he doesn't know what it takes to be an athlete in motorsports. There's no doubt about the mental fatigue it takes to be in the car for hours, the competitiveness and things that make drivers true athletes. It's just in a different sense of how a stick-and-ball sport is perceived as an athlete."

Larson, meanwhile, feels the same.

"Everybody's got a little bit different definition for what an athlete might mean to them. So his definition is different than the way I would feel about it. Do I get worked up about it when I hear somebody say that we're not athletes? No."

Gordon, meanwhile, disagrees: "I do."

But Larson knows that Stephen A. Smith won't ever understand.

"I just accept that they won't understand, because they will never be able to strap into a race car that goes 200 miles an hour. If they did, I don't think they would be able to make it a lap without feeling like they're going to die," Larson continued.

"And then you factor in three-and-a-half-hour-long races and a 150-degree car with an elevated heart rate of probably 150 for three hours, with a peak of, for me, would be 190. I think then they would quickly realize that although you're not shooting a ball into a hoop, this is definitely a sport and definitely a tough one where you have to be an athlete - maybe more on the endurance side of things."

Perhaps someone needs to put Stephen A. Smith in a NASCAR car and let him experience it.

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This story was originally published May 14, 2026 at 6:46 AM.