NASCAR had multiple issues with driver cool suits failing on Sunday at COTA, leading to some scary health issues. AJ Allmendinger, for one, had to be placed in a supine position on the track as medical personnel tended to him after the race.
Not everyone wears the cool suit, nor are there always problems with it. But when it does go out, it can be a real nightmare for drivers.
“It seemed like there was some cool shirt issues, and that’s definitely the downside to it is that if it does not work it is worse than not having it at all,” Denny Hamlin explained on the Actions Detrimental podcast. “I think the car heat soaks. That’s what I think is causing these things to go bad, is that they’re going out when temperatures are up.”
Hamlin explained what he thought was happening with the cool suits. Essentially, once the cars slow down from top speed there isn’t as much air flow through the system.
That can result in overheating that then overwhelms the mechanism. He broke it down.
“Once the car goes to caution, all the heat gets trapped inside because you’re not cutting through the air,” Hamlin said. “You’re not having the air push that hot air.
“It’s like having a fan on an ice cube. You’re driving, it’s blowing and that gives your cool air. Well once you go caution, your car stops going fast, you shut the fan off. Then you don’t have that cube pushing air onto you anymore. In the hot sense, right, the car just gets really, really hot during cautions. And I think that’s when these cool units are failing. They’re getting overheated and tripping, and that’s when they’re out for the count.”
Hamlin doesn’t use a cool suit himself. So it wasn’t really an issue for him on Sunday. But he can empathize with the drivers who do have one go out.
“I know it makes a lot of guys feel certainly better and what not,” he said. “I think I’ve just, my body’s just gotten used to it from doing this for so long that just the heat doesn’t really bother me.”
As for potential solutions to the cool suit issue, Hamlin mostly came up empty. Part of the problem is NASCAR is very particular about air flow issues.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I know that NASCAR’s very, very strict with these teams on restricting airflow to the drivers and their cool units. … All I know is that NASCAR really frowns upon diverting any air that should be going to the driver.”