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Amid a voluminous space of roughly 4,000 square feet with plenty of state-of-the-art machines, one of the most noticeable features in Joe Gibbs Racing’s indoor training facilities is something that barely qualifies as equipment at all.
Centrally mounted from the ceiling is a disco ball. As JGR Senior Athletic Advisor Michael Lepp explains, the room doesn’t function as a dance hall after normal operating hours. It’s there to lighten the mood if need be, but also serves as a nod to team owner Joe Gibbs’ time as a Hall of Fame coach for the NFL’s Washington Redskins.
“That ball actually came from the Redskins training facility where Coy Gibbs, Joe’s son, works up with their training,” Lepp said last week, on the eve of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. “They used to complain, ‘well, it’s not fun to be in the gym all the time,’ and so they bought a disco ball and put it up and turned the lights out, turned it on and said well, now you can have fun and have a disco as you work out.
“It’s a little bit that reminds us of our culture and history with Joe being a Super Bowl-winning coach. We kind of put that up as a reminder, but it’s kind of a fun thing.”
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The disco ball might be a sparkly throwback to the 1970s, but much of the room’s other contents are on the forefront of technology. Crewmembers keep track of their carefully curated workouts on flat-screen displays spread around the space. And more than three dozen pieces of equipment help Lepp and other trainers target strength drills specifically designed to assist each crewmember’s job.
The facilities don’t end there, with an outdoor athletic field for speed and agility training, plus a pit-stop practice area where the organization’s athletes can apply their skills. Plus there’s a new adjoining room where Jena Gatses, JGR’s full-time doctor of physical therapy and performance specialist, helps crewmembers recover from ailments old and new.
Gatses — who also treats athletes with JGR’s motocross operation — uses hot/cold tubs, cryotherapy methods and intramuscular stimulation in addition to her individually tailored workouts. In her nearly four-year affiliation with Joe Gibbs Racing, she’s seen a little bit of everything walk into her office after the hard knocks of a race weekend.
“You see over-use stuff, but you also see, ‘Hey, that guy just got hit by a car,’ “Gatses says. “Achilles’ tears, broken sternums, crushed heels … it’s crazy. To think that I’d be doing all of this is unreal, but I love every second of it. I can look at what they do during their jobs and modify that. I can modify the car, how Daniel (Suarez) shifts because his wrist was bothering him so we modified the car. It’s endless here.”
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NASCAR’s competition format shifts for the final 10 races as the postseason kicks in, and eliminations and pressure-packed races help determine a series champion. While Lepp says there’s no drastic change in the message he delivers to his crew, there’s a slight alteration to the training regimen — all in an effort to avoid tiring out athletes who have been tackling a brisk at-track routine since February.
“When you have a 36-week season, it’s one of the longest sports seasons there is in all of sports, you have to be careful because there’s that fine line of going too far and creating fatigue,” Lepp says. “What I’ve learned with the Playoff system in NASCAR is, it’s probably the most stressful 10 weeks you’re ever going to experience in a lot of sports. … Really, managing fatigue this time of year is critical.”
That willingness to adapt has drawn applause from the organization’s crew chiefs, who need their teams at their sharpest for the late-season push.
“The facility’s unbelievable and I think each year, we learn more and more,” says Jason Ratcliff, who oversees the JGR No. 20 Toyota for driver Matt Kenseth. “The seasons are so long, not just for the athletes or the pit crews that come out there and do their thing on Sunday. It’s for the whole group, really. Even guys that don’t travel, the hours are long, the seasons are long. So when you have a facility like that in the shop that you can go to any day, seven days a week, it’s right here and a huge help.”