NASCAR Fitness Techniques

    The NASCAR season started two weeks back, with the Daytona 500. Most people consider auto racing more of a skill than a sport, per se, bu the drivers and pit crew are much more athletic than in decades past.
     Recently retired Carl Edwards attacked the weighs very seriously, and had a physique good enough to merit coverage in Muscle & Fitness. Multi-year champion Jimmy Johnson is an avid cyclist (routinely knocking out 50-mile rides), and has competed in sprint triathlons and half-marathons. Kasey Kahne, Johnson's teammate at Hendrick Motorsports, is also a runner, and has broken 1:30 for the half-marathon distance.
    As far as the pit crews, in the old days, the jobs of tire changers , "gas can men," and the like the were filled by the mechanics who worked in the garage all week. In 1992, Jeff Gordon's team at Hendrick, "The Rainbow Warriors,"  realized that the athletic prowess of pit crew members can make the difference of a couple of seconds with each stop, depending on how fast they can jump over the wall, approach the car, get on and off the pavement, and back off the track. That can easily be the difference in winning or losing the race.
   Hendrick made the pit crew separate from the craftsmen in the garage, and concentrated on fitness training for the people on the front lines on race day. They erected a state-of-the art 5000-foot facility
for conditioning, and outdoor practice areas where the crew can simulate the activities needed on race day. As far as the make-up of the crew members, beer bellies were out, lean ex-college athletes were in. Professional strength coaches were hired to supervise it all, and conditioning includes things not typically associated with NASCAR, like water training, and, yes, yoga!
   Training is periodized through the year, with many "quick feet" type agility drills, plyometrics, and heat training drills to make sure the crew has the endurance for 14-hour Sundays in the middle of summer, in spacesuit-like uniforms, on sweltering pavement..
    While Hendrick Motorsports was the first to recognize this approach, all the teams do it now, to complement the research, technology, mechanical prowess, driver skill, and luck that it takes to win at the sport's highest level.
     My son and I attend a race every year, and love the spectacle of NASCAR racing. While it once was proudly "retro," it is now thoroughly modern in it's training techniques and approaches. There are athletes behind the wheel, and certainly behind the pit walls!