“This Year Has Been Tough”: Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Retirement Led to An Unintended Consequence for Other Drivers

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’t just mental and physical, it’s practical. Rules prohibit exiting the vehicle, and some drivers have admitted that when nature calls, and there’s 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.

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.’s departure, Elliott routinely used the restroom inside Junior’s 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.

Elliott explained the situation back in a 2018 interview with Jeff Gluck. “When 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’s a lot of people not happy about this, me being one of them, it’s no longer there.”

“They 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’s an important part of your Sunday is getting that done at the right time,” he added.

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.

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.

The very driver whose hauler once solved Elliott’s problem admitted he had crossed that line multiple times. In an interview with the YouTube channel Bussin’ With The Boys, Dale Jr. revealed he had to urinate inside the car on roughly half a dozen occasions during his career.

Explaining why those moments arise, Junior pointed to the brutal heat trapped inside stock cars under certain conditions. Drivers anticipate it and hydrate aggressively before races, but the hours leading up to the green flag often leave little opportunity to step away.

Pre-race schedules fill quickly with fan appearances and obligations, and once the helmet goes on, options disappear. When those circumstances collide, drivers sometimes make an unglamorous decision mid-race.

Dale Jr. admitted that after finishing, he would pour Gatorade over himself to disguise any evidence, turning necessity into damage control once the helmet came off.

About the author

Neha Dwivedi

Neha Dwivedi is an experienced NASCAR Journalist at The SportsRush, having penned over 5500 articles on the sport to date. She was a seasoned writer long before she got into the world of NASCAR. Although she loves to see Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch win the races, she equally supports the emerging talents in the CARS Late Model and ARCA Menards Series.. For her work in NASCAR she has earned accolades from journalists like Susan Wade of The Athletic, as well as NASCAR drivers including Thad Moffit and Corey Lajoie. Her favorite moment from NASCAR was witnessing Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. win the championship trophies. Outside the racetrack world, Neha immerses herself in the literary world, exploring both fiction and non-fiction.

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