CNN – Nascar
Sophia Dalton
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• Visit the Turner Learning Web site
NASCAR – Fast Facts
On straight-aways at 200 mph, NASCAR drivers in one second travel 293 feet, almost the length of a football field.
On turns, NASCAR drivers can experience 3 Gs of force against their bodies, comparable to the forces pressing down on shuttle astronauts at liftoff.
Research shows fit drivers are better able to handle g-forces while muscle mass offers more protection in a wreck.
Temperatures in the car often exceed 100 degrees, reaching as much as 170 degrees by the floorboards.
Drivers can lose 5-10 pounds in sweat during a race.
If a driver loses more than 3 percent of his body weight in sweat and doesn't replace those fluids, focus and reflexes start declining.
In a race, a NASCAR driver maintains the same heart rate -120-150 beats per minute for 3-plus hours - as a serious marathon runner for about the same length of time.
A study in "anticipatory timing" found race car drivers to possess the same ability to anticipate what was going to happen as a hockey goalie or a quarterback.
SAFER barriers, which NASCAR has installed at most tracks, reduces crash impacts on drivers by 70 percent or more. SAFER stands for "Steel and Foam Energy Reduction."
No driver has died since NASCAR began requiring head-and-neck restraints in 2001.
Jerry Nadeau recorded the hardest crash - 128 Gs at Richmond International Speedway in May 2003 - since NASCAR began putting black boxes in cars in 2001.
