EAST LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source)- A Michigan State University scholar is the first to receive an exercise physiology-related grant from NASCAR. Associate Professor David Ferguson and his team of kinesiology students will spend the next school year studying the effects of heat exhaustion racecar drivers may experience in competition.

According to an MSU press release, racecar drivers burn 2,000-3,000 calories on average and shed seven pounds of sweat during a two-hour race. Temperatures inside the cars can reach 150 degrees Fahrenheit, and drivers experience G-forces exceeding the safety recommendations for NASA pilots. Ferguson will draw on nearly 15 years of motor sports research to study how drivers respond to these conditions and how racing can be made safer.

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“We’ve finally got to the point where we’ve optimized the [research] technology,” he said in a statement, “and we’re taking advantage of every technological advance we have so that we can actually and quickly improve health results.”

Ferguson’s career was inspired by his love for cars. “My passion and hobby was always cars. I loved racing cars. I loved driving cars,” he said. After graduating from the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) with a degree in kinesiology, Ferguson had planned to apply for medical school, but he wondered if there was a better way for him to combine his interest in cars with his passion for medicine.

A quick Google search for “kinesiology and motorsports” led him to connect with Tim Lightfoot, an exercise physiologist at the University of North Carolina Charlotte. Their email chain was the first step in Ferguson’s journey toward a master’s degree in exercise physiology, which remains his area of study today.

Ferguson encourages any students who are passionate about physiology and high-performance vehicles to put themselves out there, like he did when he was a student. “Don’t be afraid to show up,” he said. “I started this by emailing a guy and moving to Charlotte, so if you’re interested in this stuff, come over to IM Circle and we can have that conversation.”