A 400 to 500-mile NASCAR race is a check of endurance as a lot as talent. Drivers spend three to 4 hours strapped into the automobile, navigating lengthy green-flag runs and drawn-out cautions with no alternative to step away. The pressure isn’t simply psychological and bodily, it’s sensible. Guidelines prohibit exiting the automobile, and a few drivers have admitted that when nature calls, and there’s no various, they improvise contained in the automobile. Most attempt to forestall it altogether, utilizing the restroom beforehand and hoping cautious preparation is sufficient to make it to the checkered flag. For Chase Elliott, nonetheless, one explicit change made that pre-race routine much more difficult.
When Dale Earnhardt Jr. retired from the Cup Collection in 2017, Elliott unexpectedly misplaced a quiet comfort that had eased his Sundays. Earlier than Dale Jr.’s departure, Elliott routinely used the restroom inside Junior’s hauler, bypassing the lengthy traces that shaped within the storage earlier than race time. As soon as Dale Jr. stepped away, that choice disappeared, forcing Elliott again into the identical queue as everybody else.
Elliott defined the state of affairs again in a 2018 interview with Jeff Gluck. “When Dale Jr. was right here, there was one in his hauler, so I went there each Sunday earlier than the race. After which this yr, for some purpose, there’s lots of people not completely satisfied about this, me being one among them, it’s not there.”
“They turned it into an IT room to deal with a bunch of the electronics and whatnot. I all the time went there. So this yr has been robust. That’s an necessary a part of your Sunday is getting that executed on the proper time,” he added.
Whereas a number of drivers, together with Denny Hamlin in 2024, have brazenly acknowledged that excessive warmth, heavy hydration, and race size generally go away no alternative, Elliott has persistently stated he has averted that end result.
Throughout a 2023 look on the Heidi and Frank Morning Present, Elliott acknowledged he took satisfaction in reaching some extent in his profession the place he had by no means wanted to alleviate himself contained in the automobile or his firesuit throughout a race.
The very driver whose hauler as soon as solved Elliott’s downside admitted he had crossed that line a number of instances. In an interview with the YouTube channel Bussin’ With The Boys, Dale Jr. revealed he needed to urinate contained in the automobile on roughly half a dozen events throughout his profession.
Explaining why these moments come up, Junior pointed to the brutal warmth trapped inside inventory automobiles below sure situations. Drivers anticipate it and hydrate aggressively earlier than races, however the hours main as much as the inexperienced flag typically go away little alternative to step away.
Pre-race schedules fill shortly with fan appearances and obligations, and as soon as the helmet goes on, choices disappear. When these circumstances collide, drivers generally make an unglamorous resolution mid-race.
Dale Jr. admitted that after ending, he would pour Gatorade over himself to disguise any proof, turning necessity into harm management as soon as the helmet got here off.
