Education is the heart of the Toyota Performance Center

MOORESVILLE, N.C. — The Toyota Performance Center has prioritized driver fitness as it has continued to grow, yet this facility is about far more than simply athletic performance. It's about education.

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"It's stuff that we might take for granted that we've done (since) the first time we were on our own and kind of had to," Caitlin Quinn, Performance Director, tells this author during an exclusive tour of the TPC.

"Some of these kids are very young when they find themselves on their own."

The Toyota Performance Center grew from rather humble roots; at one point, it consisted of a few pieces of equipment in a storage unit. Back in the spring and summer of 2018, Coach Quinn affectionately called this setup "J44."

Years later, however, it is a large facility in a historic part of Mooresville, North Carolina. It shares a building with the GR Garage, which turns production Toyotas into race cars.

The Toyota Performance Center still houses a training facility; it has just grown exponentially with multiple weightlifting stations, rowing machines, Assault bikes, sleds, and many other pieces of specialized equipment.

The approach has certainly changed as well. Coach Quinn jokes that they are no longer riding tricycles around the facility between training sessions.

The gym is not the only part of this sprawling complex. The Toyota Performance Center also houses areas built to address physical and mental needs.

Does a driver need to rehab an injury? They can work with Motorsport Outreach Physical Therapist Tammy May Dersham. Do they need help with their mental health? They can speak to licensed therapists.

What about meal prep? They can work with dietician Stephanie Fernandes, who went from coordinating performance nutrition for the Texas Rangers to teaching these young drivers about far more than macronutrients.

"She's teaching everything from kind of like how do you navigate a grocery store," Coach Quinn explains during a conversation in the dedicated "teaching kitchen" at TPC. "They'll come in, they'll schedule a time to meal prep with her.

"It's knife skills. I mean, truly, I have to leave the room. It scares me (laughs). I'm like, you might as well be a toddler. I don't understand what's happening right now."

Knife skills are only one of the challenges for the younger drivers in the Toyota lineup. They also have to learn about what supplements their respective bodies need. They need to know about timing out their meals and what is the best source of fuel for a race that lasts two to four hours.

How do they best fill their internal batteries before climbing into their race cars?

"With this demographic, it's honestly like, can we get some micronutrients in there as well," Coach Quinn adds. "I mean, there's not a lot of vegetables consumed, or fruits even, with this (younger) group.

"I mean, everything we talk about, we will address body comp concerns if the driver has them, or if we have them, but really, the whole thing is about performance. Like, I really don't care what someone looks like as long as they're healthy."

This test kitchen features two fully-stocked refrigerators. One is for the coaches. It has smoothie ingredients and other necessities. The other refrigerator is for the drivers/athletes. It has quick snacks that deliver all of the carbohydrates, fats, and protein that they need on the go.

Protein shakes, probiotics, protein powder, and every type of hydration supplement has a spot in this kitchen.

The education in the kitchen does not solely focus on food, however, as a quick glance around reveals. Up against one wall is a special cabinet featuring labels for key drivers in the Toyota pipeline, such as Toni Breidinger, Tanner Gray, Taylor Gray, and Gio Ruggiero.

This cabinet has supplements from Thorne and other companies that are NSF-certified. This way, the drivers won't fail a NASCAR drug test by unknowingly taking a banned substance.

Next to it sits multiple "race kits" filled with the essential items the drivers need for each weekend. They can take these on the hauler and continue to have access to electrolytes, carbohydrates, protein, and anything else they need in their custom-created nutrition plans.

"We do pretty extensive blood work in the beginning of the year, and that will inform what drivers need in terms of supplements," Coach Quinn says. "We do a very thorough vetting process. Thorne is great. Thorne isn't the only supplement we use. We do make sure everything we use is NSF- or some other trusted third body-certified for sports.

"Make sure no one's getting popped for anything. It's a teaching moment too with drivers. The FDA doesn't regulate supplements. So you actually have no idea. No one is certifying — unless they send it out somewhere — what's actually in that bag or in that bottle."

Education extends far beyond the kitchen at Toyota Performance Center, which boasts a very importance espresso setup for the coaches.

It reaches into every part of the facility, whether it's the room with the hot and cold tubs, the main training room with its numerous weightlifting stations, the rooms where drivers meet with therapists, the lab where drivers workout in significant heat, or the simulator room where drivers can continue working their way back from injuries while completing virtual laps.

The education also extends to the room where Dersham focuses on injury prevention, rehab, stretching, and workout scaling.

How can a driver fix their posture after spending all weekend in a race car and the rest of the week in a classroom or the simulator? How can they avoid common injuries to the shoulders? How do they address tight hamstrings, a common issue with racers?

"We do — before (drivers) start in the program, or at the beginning of the season — a movement screen to try to pick up things that could potentially be an issue especially in training," says Dersham.

"So we try to prevent anything that could potentially happen and then if anything happens in the weight room they will venture down this way and we will take care of it right away.

"If things happen on the weekend, we try to hit it on Monday morning," Dersham adds. "And then we work really closely with our strength coaches to try to get them back in the weight room as soon as possible to just kind of still be a part of the training aspect, to do what they can, even if it's modified.

"That's kind of what we're — I feel like — that's been the push lately. It's like you can do something even if you can't do it all, instead of them being like, 'I can't train today.'"

Why is this education so crucial at Toyota Performance Center? Numerous reasons exist, but one of the biggest is the fact that these drivers may not forever be in the Toyota pipeline.

They could change manufacturers based on the available opportunities in various series. They could also decide to fully step away from racing to pursue a different career path.

Regardless of which choices they make, Coach Quinn and the TPC staff want to ensure that these drivers are prepared to take on challenges as they enter adulthood and go on with their lives.

"We walk this line of teaching and also providing every resource possible," Coach Quinn says. "We want them to be autonomous and advocate for themselves and communicate and not be super spoiled (laughs), but yet we give them everything they possibly want.

"So there's a ton of boundaries and discipline around, 'How do we ask for these things?' And I don't mean saying, 'Please.'

"Do you have to text (Dersham) if you need her kind of thing? Is it easy for me to do it? Yeah, but that's not the point. I'm teaching you to be able to advocate (for yourself)."

The education and training plans change throughout the year as the TPC staff works with the different drivers. Coach Quinn and the other staff members will have weekly meetings about injuries, goals, and other important items so that they can adjust the program if needed.

They also have a large sitdown meeting roughly every three months where they dive deep into every driver and what they may need.

"Modifications where needed, a little bit of rehab work," says Wayne Newman, head strength coach at TPC. "I'll work in conjunction with Tammy.

"Anything she's doing, I'll stay away from it in (the gym) and vice versa, just so they don't feel too beat up day in and day out. We have fun with it."

Another reason why this education is crucial is that what works for some people may not work for others. It's not like these drivers can go to popular fitness magazines, websites, or YouTube videos and find the perfect guidelines for their particular careers.

Yes, these sites may have plans for getting down to lower body fat percentages, but that may not be the best thing for a professional race car driver. A

s Coach Quinn explains, fitness and training aren't the same thing. Someone with 8% body fat may not perform optimally during a summer race in Atlanta. Their body is not built for this. That's why the TPC focus remains on overall fitness instead of aesthetics.

Someone going to a one-hour CrossFit class is going to follow a different path than someone training to race for three-plus hours inside of a car where temperatures reach more than 120 degrees. The same goes for someone training for a marathon, a Hyrox event, or a Spartan race.

While these fitness enthusiasts may push themselves in the gym or on the trail, they won't ingest thermistors to measure their core temperature like the Toyota drivers.

Race training is just a different discipline, one that the younger drivers learn about at TPC so they can better approach each race weekend.

"Do you need electrolytes? Do you need carbohydrates? How much of each? And then we have a myriad of options," Coach Quinn says. "Our model around here is: the best program, it's the one you'll do. It goes for nutrition as well.

"So we use all of that to kind of thread the needle of this is what the data says you need. Let's talk about your preferences and what you're willing to do and come up with the best plan for actual action and go from there."

As Coach Quinn says, the best — and worst — part of building up the Toyota Performance Center is the lack of a playbook. Big time racing is unlike traditional stick and ball sports.

What worked in those arenas may not work in dirt competition, NASCAR, ARCA, Late Models, Trans Am, sports cars, or any other series.

Fortunately, they have hit on some very successful ideas over the years, and they have built on them while the TPC has expanded from its humble J44 roots.

This process will only continue for years to come as more and more drivers come through the Toyota pipeline. These drivers will continue to get a crucial education, as will the members of the TPC staff.

"We're learning as we go and what is the best way to achieve those things. What we're doing now, I guarantee won't be what we're doing five years from now, just because we'll continue to kind of evolve with the drivers and with technology."