The topic of cool suits has been a major talking point coming out of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at COTA. Multiple systems designed to keep drivers cool inside the race car failed during the race.
Most notably, AJ Allmendinger‘s failed and on a hot day in Austin, he collapsed on pit road and was stretchered to the infield care center. Cool suit malfunctions have become more commonplace of late in NASCAR. But when they work, they are quite effective, Dale Earnhardt Jr. said Tuesday. If Earnhardt were still racing today, he wouldn’t go one race without one unless temperatures were in the 60s and below.
“The Chillout is wildly effective,” Earnhardt said on Ask Jr. Live. “I raced forever with a little shell fan in my helmet, we didn’t have any cool vests, and you were not comfortable but it was what it was. Then we got little cool boxes that blew cool air in the helmet and that was just a little better, not a lot. This box in the car and it’s doing all it can to get the air instead of 120 degrees, it’s making the air maybe 95 or 90 degrees.
“Then we got these cool vests. I would say the cool vest is about a 40-degree difference in your core temperature body. So, the cool vest basically is all in your torso. It’s not your sleeves, shoulder, it’s basically from your chest down to your belly and in your back. As soon as you turn it on, it’s cold. It is cool. When it’s working as designed, it’s a massive difference. If I raced in the Xfinity or Cup level, I would not run without one unless it was maybe 60 degrees outside. A really cool day, maybe I wouldn’t run one.”
What is causing cool suits to malfunction?
Not every driver wears a cool suit. Denny Hamlin doesn’t, and he explained on “Actions Detrimental” what he believes is causing the cool suit failures.
“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.”
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,” Hamlin 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.”