Photo courtesy Action Sports Photography, Inc.

Imagine this. You are driving a NASCAR race car in the Daytona 500. You are behind the wheel of a 3,400 pound monster. You're going 200 miles-per-hour around a track that is 2.5 miles long. At that speed, you finish one lap every 45 seconds!

As you are sitting there inside the cockpit, it is extremely hot .There are incredible G forces acting on your body as you take each turn at 200 miles per hour. There are four other cars within inches of your car, so you are making hundreds of tiny decisions and adjustments every second. You are wearing headphones so the pit crew can give you constant advice.

And you will be doing this non-stop for three or four hours. No half time. No commercial breaks. Not even a bathroom break!

Driving a race car is like no other sport. In no other sport are the athletes working under such bad conditions for so long. In no other sport can you die in an instant by flipping out of control, or burn to death when a gas tank explodes. In no other sport can you lose because one screw out of hundreds of screws comes loose at the wrong time.

NASCAR racing is an amazing blend of science, technology, training, conditioning and teamwork.

Let's enter the world of NASCAR to see how all this comes together.