NASCAR driver Ryan Newman knows the importance of staying strong and fit for his day job. But he has his own way of exercising, which includes doing work on his 208-acre, North Carolina farm.
So he doesn’t really understand the cycling fad that seems to have taken over NASCAR, with drivers like Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Matt Kenseth and Jamie McMurray regularly trading their four wheels for two — whether they’re at home or a race track.
But from the gear to the bikes themselves, which can easily be several thousand dollars, Newman joked he just doesn’t get it when asked about his thoughts on the bike craze.
“I’m not sure about the whole bicycle deal,” he said Friday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway ahead of Sunday’s Overton’s 301. “And I don’t quite get those guys and the amount of money they spend on a — whatever it is — 32-ounce bicycle when all they’ve gotta do is just go on Craigslist and get a Schwinn or something like that and pedal half the distance and twice as hard and get a better workout.”
Newman generally takes a non-gym approach to staying in shape, although he did try to lend a hand to some of NASCAR’s cyclists.
“I guess it was probably back Talladega weekend, I offered to get a moped and cut the air for Kenseth and those guys just to kind of give them a little draft, some drafting partners, ya know?” he said. “But they haven’t taken me up on it.
“So I’ve just been enjoying fishing and a little bit of the outdoors. My workouts consist more of doing physical activities and sweating than paying money for a bicycle just to coast downhill.”
These guys definitely spend a lot of time going uphill, but to each his own.
