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Gupta: NASCAR ride 'more than a little terrifying'
Dr. Sanjay Gupta describes life behind the wheel

Programming Note: Dr. Sanjay Gupta gets behind the wheel to examine safety and athletic performance in NASCAR racing, "NASCAR: Driven to Extremes," Sunday, October 16, 10 p.m. ET.

(CNN) -- Driving in NASCAR is a lot more than hitting the gas and turning left, as I learned working on "NASCAR: Driven to Extremes."

NASCAR drivers compete in physically challenging conditions. The temperature inside the cars can be more than 100 degrees and humid. Scott Sutherland, a racing consultant, likened it to sitting in a sauna for three hours with a roll of nickels in each hand.

Not only is it hot, but it is stressful. NASCAR drivers race at up to 200 miles per hour, nose-to-tail with the competition, sometimes three across on the racetrack. There is very little margin for error.

As part of the special, I was lucky enough to experience the speed of NASCAR, or close to it. Wally Dallenbach, a former NASCAR driver who now does commentary for TNT and NBC, offered me a chance to ride shotgun on the oval track at New Hampshire International Speedway. The ride was thrilling and, as we sped down the straightaway inches from the wall, more than a little terrifying.

I got my chance behind the wheel a couple of weeks later at Homestead-Miami Speedway with the Richard Petty Driving Experience. After attending a safety class, I climbed into the stock car built to NASCAR specifications. The temperature outside was in the 90s. Inside the car was sweltering.

I was wearing a vest called a LifeShirt, which measured my core body temperature and other vital signs. Before I'd driven out of pit road, my body was measuring a temperature of 101 degrees, a fever. I forgot about the heat once I stepped on the gas. There is something both primitive and exhilarating about the roar of an 850-horsepower engine.

In the Richard Petty Driving Experience, you follow an instructor around the track as he takes the fastest line around the oval. My top speed for a lap was 139 mph. Another 50 mph, and I'd be ready for NASCAR.

Reporting "NASCAR: Driven to Extremes," I was fascinated by the personality of the successful drivers, who need to combine hours of focus and split-second timing, hours of patience and moments of aggression.

In the special, we profile NASCAR veteran Rusty Wallace and relative newcomer Carl Edwards, a rising star. Off the track, they are so outgoing and personable it's difficult to imagine them as hard-nosed competitors.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/09/30/gupta.nascar/index.html