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NASA is developing a new crewed vehicle and desires a lower risk of injury compared to automotive or commercial aviation. Through an agreement with the National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing, Inc. (NASCAR®), an analysis of NASCAR impacts was performed to develop new injury assessment reference values (IARV) that may be more relevant to NASA's context of vehicle landing operations. Head IARVs associated with race car impacts were investigated by analyzing all NASCAR recorded impact data for the 2002-2008 race seasons. From the 4015 impact files, 274 impacts were selected for numerical simulation using a custom NASCAR restraint system and Hybrid III 50th percentile male Finite Element Model (FEM) in LS-DYNA. Head injury occurred in 27 of the 274 selected impacts, and all of the head injuries were mild concussions with or without brief loss of consciousness. The 247 noninjury impacts selected were representative of the range of crash dynamics present in the total set of impacts.

Over the last decade large safety improvements have been made in crash protection for stock car racing drivers. It has been well established that in side and rear impacts the driver seat provides the primary source for occupant retention and restraint. With the implementation of NASCAR®'s (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, Inc) newest generation of stock car, the Car of Tomorrow (COT), into the racing schedule, the opportunity to develop and implement a universal stock car driver seat performance specification was accomplished. This paper describes the development of the Seat Performance Specification including the goals of the specification, the methodology used to develop it, a census of the existing driver seat population used in on-track competition, review of developmental dynamic specification sled tests and quasi-static tests as well as summation of the Seat Performance Specification requirements.