Velocity and wall shear stress measurements were made along the centerline of turbulent spots generated in a laminar boundary layer on a flat plate. A momentum integral calculation method based on two‐dimensional boundary layer theory and the assumption of potential flow above the spot was developed by transforming the unsteady momentum equation into nondimensional similarity coordinates. The centerline wall shear stress, calculated using ensemble‐averaged data for the velocity field, shows fairly good agreement with the measured values.