"When you're doing 180 heading into a curve, it's you and God," says the Rev. Joe Bubbico, explaining why there are few atheists in race cars. "You can either realize that, or you can get yourself into more trouble if you think you're on your own out there."
Bubbico visited the Las Vegas Motor Speedway last weekend to witness the pageantry, fervor and sometimes wretched excess of the world of NASCAR, and to spread the good word through his own passion, Racing With Jesus Ministries.
"Auto racing and God go together," he says. "Actually, God goes together with everything; we just don't realize it. God says, ‘You need me, and because you are my children and need me, I love you and want the best for you. If you want to go racing, fine—just don't forget me.'"
It would be hard to forget the Lord on a NASCAR weekend, thanks in part to the work of people like Bubbico and Tim Griffin, a chaplain with Motor Racing Outreach who ministers to NASCAR drivers as they snake their way across the country on the Nextel Cup circuit. Griffin presides over a Sunday morning chapel service, and takes it to a more personal level in one-on-one sessions on pit row just minutes before the race.
"As distracted as they can be by so much that revolves around this sport, one of the most meaningful things we do is pray with every driver before the race, and not one denies us," Griffin says. "It's a dangerous and challenging sport, and to have a moment of peace like that is important."
NASCAR is the fastest-growing sport in the U.S., and one might argue that evangelical Christianity is the pace car of American religions, so it stands to reason that some crossover between the two might be on display at the track each weekend. But those expecting to sniff out a cynical or self-serving virtue in NASCAR's religious—say, a high-octane version of Jimmy Swaggert, or Bill Frist hopped up on amphetamines and ethanol—would have their illusions shattered after a peek behind the curtain.
Griffin, with his ready smile and warm eyes (framed by coffee shop-cool specs), is no slick televangelist-wannabe. A boyish, soft-spoken servant of NASCAR and the Lord, he seems as happy to explain his ministry to an outsider as he is conducting Sunday chapel. Bubbico's an affable chap, a native New Yorker who apparently woke up talking and hasn't stopped since, a kindly uncle you look forward to seeing at the next family reunion. And Kyle Petty, son of racing legend Richard Petty and one of the drivers who regularly participates in the chapel service, offers thoughtful responses as he searches for the words to answer a reporter's question about why God, NASCAR and their rabid fan base make up a holy trinity of a whole other kind.
"Well, you can't fake your love for Christ," Petty begins in his slight North Carolina drawl. "Being a real Christian is not an act. It's either who you are, or not. And I think when you look at our fans, we're a real blue-collar, middle-class sport, and a lot of us are from the Bible Belt, and that's also who you are. When you talk about faith, I think the fans embrace that, and if they do, we're good witnesses. And if they don't embrace it, we pray that they will."
But it's not just Bible-Belt evangelicals in the NASCAR world. "A lot of guys are seekers," Griffin says. "Some have no church background at all, but they recognize a spiritual need in their life so they participate." Added Bubbico, who prays primarily with the pit crews and raceway officials, "I can always tell which guys are Catholic, because they bless themselves." And as a former Catholic and driver himself, Bubbico's got "track cred" with people across the racing spectrum. "I never said I was holier than anyone else, and they know that. We're all sinners—every one of us. We're born sinners, and we'll die sinners. It's just a matter of, if we'll die as forgiven sinners, or just sinners."
For some, that forgiveness begins at chapel, this week a 20-minute service held in a spare meeting room in the bowels of the LVMS. After a couple of gospel numbers led by Michael Murphy, a pastor at Henderson's Central Christian Church, Griffin read the first 18 verses of the Gospel of John, then told of how the famous baptizer was a humble witness to Christ's blessings, and a man who served the Lord in his moment of opportunity. He then linked the gospel to how the drivers can capture their own moment through focus and humility, and even tossed in a reference to Reese Witherspoon's acceptance speech at the recent Academy Awards, saying that like June Carter, we should all approach life "just tryin' to matter" on a daily basis.
Simple, and also perfectly suited to people who can see their lives flash before them whenever their car skids into a curve.
"Nobody's going to pull you out of that but God," Bubbico says. "Guys will get real religious in those moments, but it helps if you've already got a good foundation."