NASCAR drivers discuss the issue of cursing on the radios

NASCAR drivers have filthy mouths sometimes, and who can blame them? Racing at 180 miles per hour in a cockpit as hot as an oven while other drivers beat and bang on you can test the patience of a saint.

Not that most race car drivers are saints, mind you.

One of out favorite segments on FS1’s NASCAR Race Hub is “Radioactive,” where we replay driver conversations from the team radios. Although obscenities are carefully bleeped out, you can hear the rage in the voices of the drivers and crew chiefs:

It’s a double-edged sword: On one hand, fans have access to the drivers’ thoughts that fans from other professional sports can only dream of. On the other hand, it can be embarrassing for the drivers, especially the more vocal ones.

“When you’re in the car and you’re mad, you forget that children are listening or maybe even your own children,” said six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson, “My wife has shared with me that she’ll never let our kids listen to me in a race. I said, ‘Really? I’m that bad?’  And she said, ‘When you are bad, you are that bad.’”

“It certainly opens up our world that used to be private and makes it a lot more public than what it used to be,” said Kyle Busch, the 2015 champ. “I’ve definitely changed over the years and holding back a heck of a lot more and not pressing the radio button as much.”

Busch said getting mad on the radio doesn’t correlate to on-track results.

“I’ve had times where we’ve had outbursts and we’ve had bad finishes and we’ve had outbursts and we’ve had good finishes and we’ve won races doing that,” said Busch. “You just have to use it in the right way to help you.”

Team owner Chip Ganassi said the better the driver, the less trash talk there is on the radio.

“If you look at the guys that win races and win championships, nine times out of 10 those are the calmer, succinct communicators on the radio. They don’t get into a lot of poor language or obscenities,” said Ganassi. “The guys that win on a regular basis or the guys that win championships don’t feel the need to do that.  I think that probably should tell you something.”

But Johnson said it’s easy to get carried away in the heat of the moment.

“Its just something you lose touch with and I guess we’re kind of familiar with it because there have always been public channels and stuff,” he said. “I do understand why it’s entertaining and I cringe every once in a while when I hear the term ‘Radioactive’ and wonder what I did the week before and what people were thinking.”