Associate Professor David Ferguson is the first ever to receive an exercise physiology-related grant from NASCAR. The grant, awarded in January 2023, is expected to address the growing concerns of heat exhaustion a race car driver may experience during competition.
Ferguson and his team of Kinesiology undergraduate and Ph.D. students will spend the next year attending high-profile NASCAR races around the country collecting data.
“It’s going to be a very large data set. We’re going to learn a lot about how drivers respond to heat,” said Ferguson. “NASCAR is involved, which means our data can influence safety of all the cars. Large-scale problems can be fixed now.
With close to 15 years of motor sports research under his belt, Ferguson is utilizing the fine-tuned technology and equipment that is needed to conduct research at the highest level. “We’ve finally got to the point where we’ve optimized the technology and we’re taking advantage of every technological advance we have so that we can actually and quickly improve health results.”
To read more about Ferguson and his research, visit education.msu.edu
