Belk Bowl players run laps

CONCORD, N.C. – There’s speed, and then there’s speed.

Football players from N.C. State and Louisville got a taste of the difference on Friday as members of both teams took turns taking mock qualifying runs around Charlotte Motor Speedway in cars provided by the Richard Petty Driving Experience.

It was clear stock cars are not a comfortable fit for many football players who ranged in size from 5-foot-10 and 170 pounds (Louisville’s Terell Floyd) to 6-6 and 340 (N.C. State’s Tyson Chandler).

Some of the fastest players for both teams on the field were left wide-eyed after taking three high-speed laps around one of NASCAR’s most popular tracks.

“My speed and this speed here are nothing in comparison,” said Wolfpack sophomore safety Dontae Johnson. “They said I was going 160 mph – I thought it felt like 200-plus.

“I followed racing when I was younger and I always wanted to experience it. I got into football so I fell off track. I would say this was a dream come true.”

Friday’s laps, pit stop practice and racing video games were the first of several activities for N.C. State and Louisville, which meet in the Belk Bowl on Tuesday night at Bank of America Stadium.

Both teams practiced Friday at Charlotte area high schools.

Head coaches and some players from each team will visit Levin Children’s Hospital on Saturday morning to meet with sick children and spread some holiday cheer.

For many players, the visit to CMS was their first up-close experience with NASCAR.

“If I could run that fast, it would be ballgame,” said Josh Bellamy, a 6-foot, 206-pound wide receiver for Louisville.

“I’ve driven go-karts and that’s not a go-kart. I used to run into people in go-karts, you run into somebody with one of those (stock cars), your life might be over.”

ACC COUNTRY: North Carolina is known as a hot bed for college basketball and area fans may be more familiar with Louisville’s basketball team, but the school’s football players are hoping to make their own lasting impression.

“We get the whole city riled up – when both basketball and football are successful,” said Cardinals sophomore wide receiver Damian Copeland. “There are no professional sports in Louisville, which is a nice perk for us.

“Playing N.C. State in ACC country is a challenge for us and will let us know where we are as a program.”

TICKET UPDATE: Belk Bowl officials said as of Friday afternoon approximately 58,000 tickets had been sold for Tuesday night’s game. The game is on track to be the highest attended non-sellout (the game sold out in 2002, 2004 and 2008).

N.C. State has sold approximately 24,000 tickets to the game through the school. “This is no surprise to me or anybody who follows Wolfpack football,” said head coach Tom O’Brien. “Our fans are the best in the nation and we knew they would come out en masse to support us at the Belk Bowl.”