Image via Toyota Gazoo Racing, tyler_reddick/Instagram
With NASCAR heading to Mexico City this weekend, the different teams will face an array of unique challenges. One of them is how drivers will handle the lower levels of oxygen available at almost 7,500 feet. Some have been using some interesting ways to prepare their bodies for the race.
Watch a Porsche 911 GT3 RS and Dodge Challenger Scat Pack crash into each other at a track.
In particular, Toyota has been putting its drivers through a regimen of training and even sleeping rituals in preparation for lower levels of oxygen. Apparently, it all began because Christopher Bell brought up concerns, or so he told NBC Sports.
“We started that early in the season just talking and getting a plan together, making sure we’re prepared for it,” Bell said. “I’m proud of everyone at Toyota, the Toyota Performance Center. Caitlin Quinn has really headed up the department of physical fitness and made sure we’re ready for this challenge. Hopefully, the Toyota drivers are the ones that are succeeding.”
Quinn, the director of performance at Toyota Performance Center in Mooresville, North Carolina, has formulated quite the plan to get drivers used to drawing in less oxygen with each breath.
One method has been having drivers sleep in a hypoxic tent. For Tyler Reddick, that innovation, which began about eight weeks before this weekend, put some strain on his marriage. After all, his wife just had a baby, so during the last few weeks of her pregnancy they had to sleep separately.
Another method Quinn deployed was establishing a low oxygen room in Toyota Performance Center where drivers can spend time on an exercise bike. That then helps them acclimate to being physically stressed in such an environment, hopefully so their body is ready for the elevation challenges in Mexico.
Other drivers have been trying out their own methods, like wearing a mask while exercising, but it seems only Toyota has as team-wide regimen ahead of this weekend.
Of course, the cars will also have to deal with less oxygen in the air. That means a different tune. Aero effects will work differently, as well. In the end, the result could be a rather eventful weekend of racing.
Image via Toyota Gazoo Racing, tyler_reddick/Instagram
