Lara Carlson attends 2014 NASCAR Summit; invited to present at next year’s Summit

Lara Carlson, DPE., FACSM, assistant professor in the Department of Applied Exercise Science, attended the 2014 annual NASCAR Summit, which was held in Concord, North Carolina, January 5-7, 2014. The Summit addressed topics related to operations, safety, and emergency medical services for all respective NASCAR tracks in preparation for the upcoming 2014 NASCAR season, which kicks off in February with the Daytona 500.

The event was by invitation only. Carlson, whose recent research involving the physiological responses of stock car drivers during competitive racing, was contacted about attending the Summit after the New York Times ran a story about her latest research last summer. Carlson’s research addresses the thermoregulatory stress and cardiovascular challenges during competitive stock car racing. Like the goals of most sport science research with all competitive athletes, strategies can be developed to minimize stress on the body during motorsports competition to improve driver performance and safety.

Presentations in the medical track included treatment of pit crew athletes when they become injured, the kinematics in rollover crashes and the injuries sustained by drivers, pathophysiology and mechanism of sternal fractures and dislocations from seat restraints, and how to recognize and treat these injuries and comorbidities to prevent loss of life.

Carlson had an opportunity to speak with Sam Hornish Jr., a three-time IndyCar Series champion and current NASCAR driver for Joe Gibbs Racing.

NASCAR representatives invited Carlson to present her driver research at next year’s 2015 Summit meeting.   

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