Uncommonly Sports' Forgotten Sport

Issue: What sport is that?

Short Answer: NASCAR - even though I don't think it is a sport at all.

Reasoning: Where to start?  I'm not sure how driving ever became thought of as a sport.  Last time I heard, at 16 years old, even if you're female, you are permitted to drive a motor vehicle.  Every single person in the whole world is permitted to drive a car at some point.  I once watched a special on TV about a man with no arms who could drive a car with his feet.  A sport, it is not.  However, with the speeds that stock cars go, it does narrow the field of people capable of driving, surviving, and winning an actual NASCAR race.  Driving a car 200 miles per hour while all alone on a five-lane highway is impressive, but doing it surrounded by 40 other idiots on a track is uber-impressive.  That still doesn't make it a sport.  Plus, how is watching cars drive around in a circle a couple hundred times, fun?  If anyone tells you they are at a race for any other reason than the wrecks or the beer, they are lying.

However, since the American people (and by "American" I mean people from West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and South Carolina, i.e., hillbillies) consider NASCAR a sport, I guess I can write about it here.  Alright, I am not going to actually write about NASCAR because, well, I don't know crap about it, other than the fact that it is not really a sport.  But, I did see something the other day, at a NASCAR event in Nashville, Tennessee (see, told ya), that you will never, ever see anywhere else.  At every NASCAR race, there is an invocation.  For those that don't know, an invocation is "the act of invoking or calling upon a deity, spirit, etc., for aid, protection, inspiration, or the like."*  And, at NASCAR races, the person giving the invocation usually asks for God's help in keeping the racers, pit crews, and fans safe from any harm during the race, since it is obviously dangerous (though it isn't a sport - did I say that already?).  Pastor Joe Nelms gave the invocation at the race in Nashville last weekend, and, well, he had a different idea about his invocation.  Instead of asking God for help, he decided he would give thanks to God, for some different things.  Watch, and try not to laugh:

That is about the only time I have ever enjoyed NASCAR.  Thanks Pastor Joe, for giving such a moving invocation, at a non-sporting event.


*http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/invocation