Dr. Sanjay Gupta, an Atlanta neurosurgeon and the network’s senior medical correspondent, was in Concord, NC this week at Lowe’s Motor Speedway filming an hourlong CNN medical special show scheduled for Sept. 25 about motor sports from a medical perspective. Among the topics: whether great racers are born that way or learn through training; staying hydrated on race day; and the survivability of crashes. “People are fascinated by the physics of a crash,” says Gupta, who interviewed driver Carl Edwards in a Huntersville park for a segment on drivers as athletes. “I feel safer in my race car than on the street,” Edwards told him. Oncoming traffic and variables beyond a driver’s control are potentially deadly hazards, he said. Dedicated to a regimen of exercise and health, Edwards is emblematic of the new breed of drivers, a generation beyond the mythology of beer-swilling, pot-bellied racers, Gupta says. Gupta joined CNN in 2001. He has risen to be one of the network’s most recognizable correspondents, known for knowledgeable reporting on medical trends, his weekend show, “House Call” (8:30 a.m. Saturdays and Sundays), and occasional specials on topics that have ranged from presidential health to memory.(Charlotte Observer)(6-26-2005)
