Yahoo Autos Three IndyCar Drivers Will Compete on American Ninja Warrior
Helio Castroneves has won ABC's Dancing with the Stars, Tony Kanaan is a regular competitor in Iron Man competitions, and Josef Newgarden is a lover of obstacle courses. The three, who make their living as some of the best drivers in the Verizon IndyCar Series, will attempt to qualify for the NBC competition show 'American Ninja Warrior' when it stops in Indianapolis later this week.
"I love Spartan races, I love trail running, skiing, surfing, hiking, mountain biking, so this American Ninja Warrior opportunity is cool," Newgarden told RoadandTrack.com. "The only thing you worry about is injuries; when we're done with the show, we have to go back to our primary jobs, so you can't go completely mental and hurt yourself with the month of May almost here."
Trials take place on April 27-28, and with the trio also preparing for the Grand Prix of Indy on May 14 and the 100th running of the Indy 500 on May 29, Newgarden says they will have to rely on the core fitness they've already built to handle 230 mph Indy cars.
"We found out about doing American Ninja Warrior three weeks ago, and you can't just do extra pull-ups to get ready for it," the lanky Tennessean added. "It's all strength based and specific skills; the rock climbers do really well at this because of their training. It would have been great to have five months to train like a rock climber, but instead, I've had two days at a gym to train on two or three of the [ANW] specialties. If I had the time, I'd want to be trained in 10."
Kanaan-IndyCar's pint-size Hulk-is primed to flex his muscles at the Indy trials.
"I haven't had a lot of time to prepare, but I think my training that I do on a daily basis will put me in a position to perform well," said the Brazilian, who won the 2013 Indy 500. "We're constantly trying to show everyone that what we do requires us to be athletes, but sometimes it doesn't translate as well to the general public. This will be our chance to show how physically fit we have to be to race in the Verizon IndyCar Series."
Kanaan's lack of height and modest reach could pose a problem on the final obstacle, the Warped Wall, which could favor Newgarden. Castroneves, like his countryman Kanaan, and Newgarden, is accustomed to living with blisters on his hands after fighting the steering wheel of an Indy car that produces more than 5000 pounds of downforce. Training for ANW, as he reveals, has taken hand shredding to a new level.
"I realized that to become a Ninja, wow, you have to sacrifice a lot," the three-time Indy 500 winner said. "I was very cautious about that and do have some blisters, bruises, but right now it's been fun."
Given more time to train for the ANW obstacle course, Newgarden is confident he could succeed. With the roles reversed, it's unlikely an elite ANW athlete would be capable of reaching a similar level of success in an Indy car.
"To prepare for something like [ANW], if you're generally a fit person, you'd need six to eight months," he said. "I don't think you could train for the same amount of time and drive to the same level in an IndyCar.
The Indianapolis episode of ANW will air June 13 on NBC.
