A 400 to 500-mile NASCAR race is a test of endurance as much as skill. Drivers spend three to four hours strapped into the car, navigating long green-flag runs and drawn-out cautions with no opportunity to step away. The strain isn\u2019t just mental and physical, it\u2019s practical. Rules prohibit exiting the vehicle, and some drivers have admitted that when nature calls, and there\u2019s no alternative, they improvise inside the car. Most try to prevent it altogether, using the restroom beforehand and hoping careful preparation is enough to make it to the checkered flag. For Chase Elliott, however, one particular change made that pre-race routine far more complicated.<\/p>\n
When Dale Earnhardt Jr. retired from the Cup Series in 2017, Elliott unexpectedly lost a quiet convenience that had eased his Sundays. Before Dale Jr.\u2019s departure, Elliott routinely used the restroom inside Junior\u2019s hauler, bypassing the long lines that formed in the garage before race time. Once Dale Jr. stepped away, that option disappeared, forcing Elliott back into the same queue as everyone else.<\/p>\n
Elliott explained the situation back in a 2018 interview with Jeff Gluck. \u201cWhen Dale Jr. was here, there was one in his hauler, so I went there every Sunday before the race. And then this year, for some reason, there\u2019s a lot of people not happy about this, me being one of them, it\u2019s no longer there.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey turned it into an IT room to house a bunch of the electronics and whatnot. I always went there. So this year has been tough. That\u2019s an important part of your Sunday is getting that done at the right time,\u201d he added<\/a>.<\/p>\n While several drivers, including Denny Hamlin in 2024, have openly acknowledged that extreme heat, heavy hydration, and race length sometimes leave no choice, Elliott has consistently said he has avoided that outcome.<\/p>\n During a 2023 appearance on the Heidi and Frank Morning Show, Elliott stated he took pride in reaching a point in his career where he had never needed to relieve himself inside the car or his firesuit during a race.<\/p>\n The very driver whose hauler once solved Elliott\u2019s problem admitted he had crossed that line multiple times. In an interview with the YouTube channel Bussin\u2019 With The Boys, Dale Jr. revealed he had to urinate inside the car on roughly half a dozen occasions during his career.<\/p>\n