Anne Peters is the endocrinologist for pro drivers Ryan Reed (Nationwide Series) and Charlie Kimball (open-wheel racing) and some Olympians, including swimmer Gary Hall Jr. All have diabetes. She helps them go as fast as possible by monitoring their blood-sugar levels. As the clinical director for the USC’s Westside Center for Diabetes, she has witnessed the physical and mental demands of competing at high speed.
People may think NASCAR driving is easier on the body because the athlete is steering the car, but it’s almost like being an astronaut because of the G-forces. You can measure this force in a physiology lab. For a regular person, a really fast turn in a speeding car would make you flummoxed because you could not maintain concentration and coordination without getting nauseated. Whether they are trained or born with this ability, race-car drivers can function at much higher G-forces than the rest of us.
To prepare physically for high speed, they need strength, but not muscle mass that is too big. They want to have muscles with highly tuned fast-twitch and slow-twitch fibers. The stress of speed and G-forces requires a great deal of fine and gross motor skills. They don’t want to be too heavy in the car.
From the pit, I monitor my athletes’ blood sugars continuously every five minutes. If their blood sugar is too high, their vision and coordination suffers. If it’s too low, that’s more dangerous. They need to stay in a range, and relax there — then their lap times will improve.
Blood-sugar levels show that at the beginning of the race, they have jitters and the stress hormones are up. Halfway into the race, they have gotten into some sort of rhythm. The blood sugar is steady. Their bodies are constantly balancing how glucose is used.
People get misled that anyone could get into a Ferrari and drive it really fast. You’d get tired. Every minute there are a thousand little shifts to keep the car going straight. A tiny oversteer, and you will crash into the guy next to you.
In a NASCAR race, drivers are under great physiological stress and psychological stress because all are really intense competitors who basically live together, and no one wants to hurt a friend; they all want to stay focused to win. High-speed competition requires a mind of steel because a driver can go neither too fast or too slow. Physically and mentally, they must find the fine line of where they can perform at top speed.
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