News

The COVID-19 pandemic silenced the engines and brought a red flag to racing – along with all sporting events – over the last several weeks.

Team Penske closed the doors in its Mooresville, N.C., facility in mid March and hit the pause button on the 2020 season, like all race teams, following the mandates to stay home and stay healthy.

During the time away from the shop and the race track, members of Team Penske’s world-class pit crews in NASCAR, INDYCAR and IMSA sports car competition have done their best to stay in shape, stay focused and remain ready for the return to racing. Now that the 2020 season is set to resume on May 17 with NASCAR back on track at Darlington Raceway, Team Penske crew members know their challenge of staying in top physical and mental condition during this break will be put to the test.

“I have never seen anything remotely like this in 56 years of my life,” Team Penske Athletic Director Jim Beichner said about the global pandemic. “This is something I didn’t think was possible. How do you plan for something that you don’t think is possible?”

What was once considered impossible has become a reality and that has brought challenges for the team members that often make the difference between winning and losing on pit lane. How does an elite pit crew, that is forged through intense training, physical workouts and detailed film review maintain its edge when no one has been able to access the training facility for weeks?  

“We have a tremendous group of athletes,” said Beichner. “They know we’re going back racing and they also know that in order to be physically ready they can’t be home eating unhealthy and not working out. And when you get to the track those who have been sitting at home eating unhealthy, not working out, it’s going to show. Team Penske is all about performance and we’re going to make sure our guys are ready.”

Team Penske NASCAR Competition Director Travis Geisler says that self-discipline is essential for pit crew members and that has helped them prepare for the return to competition. Geisler added that character trait will also help the Team Penske crews adapt to a changing environment once racing resumes and continue to perform at an elite level.

“They get paid for that discipline,” said Geisler. “Nobody is getting pushed to go do it, so it is all mental motivation. It’s easy when you’re at home to eat however you want to eat. The schedules are going to change. The race weekend schedule is going to be different for the races when we’re trying to get caught up. It’s going to be a very different world than what we’ve operated in before and from a preparation standpoint it’s a total shift.”

Maintaining a consistent schedule and getting creative with workout activities has been an important part of crew member training during the stay at home mandate, according to Team Penske’s Strength and Conditioning Coach Jon Rowan.

“It’s much easier to train to stay accountable to your diet and sleep pattern when you have a schedule,” said Rowan. “Keeping everyone on a schedule and motivated to do the things they need to do without anybody there to either work with them or hold them accountable on a daily basis is a challenge.

“Some of my guys prior to the pandemic had built home gyms because they wanted one and they have been able to continue similar training patterns to what we were using with weights and explosive-type movements. For the guys that haven’t, I’ve been sending out daily workouts where they can utilize things around the house. When we get back, we know that the race schedule is going to be just smashed busy. We just need them to stay active and healthy.”

Rowan added that healthy eating during the time away hasn’t been a big concern for the crews.

“The good news through this whole thing has been the diet has actually gotten better because they’re home, their kids are home, their wives are home,” said Rowan.  “They’re eating more as a family; they’re eating more consistently and eating well which is a good thing.”

Shaun Rinaman, Pit Coach for the Team Penske INDYCAR and IMSA sports car crews, has asked team members to focus on analyzing their performance and ways to improve during this time when they are not able to physically practice together. He has shifted his communication to emails and texts and has stayed positive in his approach with team members.

“My last email I told the guys we have the ability to watch practices and to watch pit stops from previous races, especially the new guys,” said Rinaman. “Watch the stops that were not perfect, stops where we had issues, and learn from them because that’s what practice is for. This is the time to learn and fix mistakes so that we don’t do it at the race track. We may not have the ability to practice, so watching pit stops and mentally running them through your head may help when we get to the track with the limited practices we’ll have available.” 

NASCAR Pit Coach Trent Cherry stressed the importance of keeping routine-orientated athletes on a regular schedule. He added that once racing resumes, the schedule will be different for the crews as they will be racing multiple times in a given week. The goal will be to get the teams back into a rhythm as quickly as possible.

“It’s easy to be out of sight, out of mind,” said Cherry. “We’ve had our strength and conditioning coach, Jon Rowan, sending the guys workouts five days a week.  We’re trying to keep them on a routine. We won two of the first four races and had really good pit stops in all four races by all the teams. The biggest thing for me is to get the guys back into a winning mentality of where we left off. It’s not really anything else besides routine.”

Beichner added that once the season is back underway, it will be important to monitor the crew members and pace their training accordingly with the accelerated schedule of races.         

“We have to be very careful of their conditioning, of their health and safety,” said Beichner. “But getting them back in a cycle, in a groove, is also a big concern because that’s where injuries happen too. You’ve been out for a month and all of a sudden you go too hard too quick and now you’ve strained a muscle, or you pull a back or hamstring. We have two weeks (before the first NASCAR race). It’s got to still be a good pace, but you can’t go so hard and so fast that they hurt themselves.”

Rowan agrees that the revised NASCAR schedule for the month of May, that includes four Cup Series races in 11 days, will affect how the pit crews train as they return to the Team Penske facility. And how racing schedules will develop for the remainder of the season may also impact how the teams train, across all of Team Penske’s race programs.

“There’s no way to jump right back in like we were. We’ll definitely have to ease back into (training),” said Rowan. “That first week will be as basic as it gets – a lot of body weight movements, a lot of stretching, mobility and let them practice because I think if you go too hard too fast at them you’re asking for it. And if we get a guy hurt, they’ll be zero time to get them healthy before the end of the season. The schedules will really set the tenor for how we’re going to train moving forward.”