The driver suffered from a cooling shirt failure at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
On Sunday, NASCAR visited the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The series took on the 14-turn road course at the famed race track.
AJ Allmendinger suffered an issue with his cooling shirt. The shirt is designed to run cool water through tiny tubes and keep a driver cool.
Indianapolis had a high of 85 degrees but a felt like temperature of 92. Under caution in the closing laps, Allmendinger’s in-car camera showed him struggling to keep his head up from exhaustion.
After the race, AJ Allmendinger struggled to climb from his machine. As he did so, he fell out and leaned over the pit wall.
Crew members rushed to his aid. They placed a wet towel over his head and give him water.
Allmendinger was taken to the infield care center and given IVs. He was quickly released.
Indianapolis Race Results: July 31, 2022 (NASCAR Cup Series)
AJ Allmendinger comments
“It was hot from the start of the race,” AJ Allmendinger told Frontstretch after the race.
“By the time I figured it out, I still had the cooling shirt on. So, it just made it even hotter, in the car.”
“I was doing okay. With 20 to go, I ran out of (drinking) water. The helmet blow started to feel hot as well.”
“Riding around under yellow just makes it worse. Under green, I could be okay. Those last few laps were pretty brutal.”
“Once you get green, you suck it up. We had a chance to win the race, that’s all that mattered.”
“The way that turn one is here, if you’re on the outside front on one of those late race restarts, you’re just going to get run into. We saw it with Chase Elliott the start before. And you saw it with Chase Briscoe last year.”
“So, I figured I was going to get shoved off the race track into turn one and just try to make the best of it. Felt like we did.”
Ross Chastain ran into a similar situation as he ran four wide on the outside into turn one on the final restart. Chastain elected to skip the corner and take the access road. However, Chastain was penalized for the move after the race.
Ross Chastain, Austin Dillon penalized by NASCAR after Indianapolis (Video)
“At the end of the day, we gave ourselves a shot to win two in a row. That’s pretty bad ass.”
Allmendinger drove to victory lane on Saturday in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race.
Allmendinger added, “It was just the cooling shirt, extra laps and the cars are pretty hot sometimes too.”
