The race weekend in Mexico City will provide NASCAR's drivers with an opportunity to battle for a historic win on a new road course. It will also serve as a showcase for the Toyota Performance Center's unique altitude training program.
Some manufacturers and drivers have taken certain steps to prepare for this weekend in Mexico City, which takes place at 7,349 feet above sea level. One manufacturer sent drivers down early so they could get some racing action on a go-kart track. Toyota went a different route and created an eight-week program for drivers that tested them in very new ways.
Not every Toyota Gazoo Racing North America driver opted in, but many took full advantage in the months leading up to the Mexico City trip.
"I was trained to be the best I am in the car, but Mexico being such a different situation, I just thought it'd be cool to be able to do this and push myself in a different type of training," William Sawalich told a select group of media members ahead of the trip to Mexico City.
The race will take place at nearly 8,000 feet above sea level. For comparison, a race at Charlotte Motor Speedway takes place at 620 feet above sea level. Homestead-Miami Speedway is three feet above sea level.
This is a major change that will affect each driver in the field differently. The coaches at the Toyota Performance Center in Mooresville, North Carolina, had to account for this while prepping drivers.
They especially focused on the VO2 Max, which is the amount of oxygen a body can use during intense exercise.
"For every 1,000 feet above sea level you are, your VO2 max is going to drop by approximately 3%," Coach Caitlin Quinn, director of performance at the TPC, said. "Though everyone is individuals, it could have a pretty serious effect on some of the drivers.
"I started just doing a lot of research on what that looks like, found things like cooling would be impaired, dehydration might be an issue, VO2 max issue that I mentioned, inner ear and central nervous system function, all things that drivers need to do their job really well."
These altitude concerns led to Toyota taking a multi-pronged approach to driver preparation. Some spent time in Aspen, Colorado, ahead of the trip to Mexico City so that they could better acclimate. Others opted in for a more intense approach.
Specifically, Coach Quinn and the TPC staff subjected the willing drivers to hypoxic exposure in multiple situations.
The passive hypoxic exposure involved drivers sleeping or resting in an environnment where they did not have as much oxygen. The active hypoxic exposure involved the drivers working out inside of a special tent.
Photo credit: James Armas/TGRNA
A spin bike was the tool of choice for the portions of the workouts shared with media members. Although a Concept 2 SkiErg, which works the full body, made an appearance in the background of multiple photos.
Tyler Reddick, one of the drivers who began this program nine weeks ago, went all in. He slept in the hypoxic environment, something his wife did not necessarily love, and he did numerous workouts while having far less oxygen at his disposal.
"I've always enjoyed training, but doing this has been fun," Reddick said during the media session with Sawalich and Coach Quinn. "The setting, the atmosphere is all a little bit different, so you're testing yourself in new ways.
"...Pretty early on I was starting to notice the benefits."
What exactly were the benefits for other drivers? It all depends. For Reddick, he said he actually slept better in the hypoxic environment.
In terms of working out, he noticed that his body adapted to the diminished oxygen and that his performance improved over several weeks of work.
Photo credit: Swikar Patel / TGRNA
Sawalich, who is training to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in December, also dedicated his efforts to this altitude training program.
He knew that breathwork was incredibly important during standard oval races at Bristol and Dover, and he saw the increased importance heading to nearly 8,000 feat above sea level.
"It's helped me in some past races," Sawalich said. "I mean, about five races ago, I kind of started noticing a few benefits in the car, just not being as fatigued and out of breath."
Of course, prepping for Mexico City was about far more than breathwork and operating at a high level with reduced oxygen. The coaches at the TPC knew that they needed to make adjustments to how the drivers fueled themselves for a grueling road course race.
They couldn't simply stick with the nutrition and supplement plans that TPC sports dietician Stephanie Fernandes put in place for the rest of the season.
Photo credit: James Armas/TGRNA
"We have it very dialed in -- race day plans just for every race in terms how much fluid do you need, electrolytes, carbohydrates, all these different kind of parameters around race day that are specific to each driver and their makeup and what they use for fuel," Coach Quinn explained.
"Just because we're very fortunate to be able to test for a lot of these things. Mexico does affect those, and so the prescription for those things are going to be tweaked a little bit."
Coach Quinn did not explicitly detail how the nutrition and supplement plans changed for this race weekend. She did not want to give away any "trade secrets" to competitors.
Putting together this multi-month training program was by no means a small feat. It required considerable amounts of research and even more planning. It required drivers to buy in, dedicate their time, and trust the process.
Creating the altitude training program was monumental, for sure, but it served as a sign of how far TPC has come. Seven years ago, Coach Quinn was working out of a storage unit with very limited equipment. She was just trying to get drivers interested in working out.
Now, however, TPC is a large facility in the central hub of racing. It serves drivers and takes care of essentially every need. They have access to strength coaches, a sports dietition, a mental health and wellness specialist, a physical therapist, and a physician assistant for orthopedic concerns.
"We're like 'Rocky IV' if both sides of the ring were one place," Coach Quinn said. "We have a lot of resources now and just trying to help drivers find their edge in the car.
"The teams work really hard on making the cars as fast as possible. We're trying to make the drivers able to perform at the best of their ability physically and mentally."