Sam. said:
Very athletic sport right there
.
You're right, it is.
Not only are the drivers in all of the top series well conditioned athletes, their pit crews are as well.
While the driver is strapped into a confined space that can reach temperatures of over 54 C (130 F), they can pull over five G's of lateral force in corners, with nearly two during hard acceleration and up to 4 Gs during breaking, and do that for several hours, without a break, while maintaining high levels of concentration as if your life depended on it, because, at anywhere between 100 to 230 MPH (160 to 370 KPH), it does.
It has been well documented that a driver can lose between 4 to 10 pounds (2 to 5 kilos) of weight (mostly in sweat) during an average 2 - 4 hour race.
The days of the beer swilling, pot bellied, cigar smoking 'good ol' boy' drivers of the racing world are long over. That stereotype still lives on at local tracks and sometimes in the owners suites at the big tracks, but on pit road with the big name top teams of NASCAR, F1, and Indycar. No.
On the pit crew side... well... Here:
... nothing associated with a pit stop is light and easy to handle. A racing tire and rim combination weighs in excess of fifty pounds (23 Kilograms), and the ones coming off the car are blazing hot! A full gas can comes in at around sixty pounds (27 K) and they will use two during the stop. Even the specialized floor jack used to lift the side of the car is heavier than you think it would be as some weigh about forty pounds (18 K).
http://themediadesk.com/files8/pit18pt2.htm
And they handle all that to change four tires and fill it up with fuel in a matter of seconds. To do it, many of the teams have a gym back at the shop, and most of the top teams have physical trainers on staff as well as engineers and mechanics.
In the picture, the only one out of shape is the NASCAR official to the far right, he does look like he could stand to go on a diet.