When the Georgia Bulldogs showed up at Charlotte Motor Speedway Saturday morning with the chance to ride shotgun in a NASCAR race car going 160 miles per hour, Amarlo Herrera was one of the first in line.
Turns out, he was also the first out of the line. The senior linebacker “chickened out” and didn’t participate.
“Couldn’t do it. No, not me,” Herrera said later in the day after the Bulldogs completed their late-afternoon practice Saturday. “I signed up for it; was actually in the front of the line. Then I saw (one of the cars) go by and I didn’t want no part of it. I walked away.”
Herrera was in the minority though. He estimated that 90 percent of the team followed through and climbed through the tiny window to take the ride of their lives. Hours afterward, coaches and players were still beaming about the experience.
“Pretty fast,” senior defensive back Damian Swann said. “I went 160 it was actually fun. As soon as we took off, he started hitting those gears and we got up pretty fast and we were running.”
Swann said he begged Herrera to get back in line.
“I think that’s one of those things you only get one chance to do,” he said. “I don’t see any of us being NASCAR drivers any time soon. That’s why encouraged him to go, but he really didn’t want to do it.”
There were times that head coach Mark Richt wondered what he had gotten himself into.
“(Freshman quarterback) Jacob Park was in the car right behind me when we started,” Richt said. “We were going 150 or 160, I imagine. We were probably six or eight inches from the wall going around, and I was OK with that, even though I was on that side of the car. But then they started taking turns passing each other and it was a little hairy. We’re two or three feet from each other when we’re drafting and their swinging in front. My driver, his wheel’s shaking. I’m thinking, if we flinch just a little bit, we’re maybe not dead but we’re rolling.”
Richt has gone to a bowl game every year since he started in college coaching at Florida State in 1990 and he counted the Belk Bowl’s NASCAR experience at Charlotte Motor Speedway as one of the best he has had.
“When you saw the smile on everybody’s face when they came out of there, you knew everybody had a great time,” he said. “Glad we got to do that.”
Richt also came away with a stronger appreciation for the skills and athleticism of professional racers.
“That was three laps. Those guys do it for 500 miles, for hours, and then there’s like 40 cars out there,” Richt said. “Yeah, I’ve got a much greater appreciation for NASCAR.”
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