The Next Gen cars have a new reason for criticism, and Chase Elliott backs it up. As if this generation of cars weren’t targeted enough (even by the drivers), there seems to be a new concern that has come up, as many suffered inside their ‘Dutch ovens’ during the race at COTA. The failing cool shirts made the situation worse, and the drivers struggled with the rapidly increasing temperatures. However, Elliott had previously come up with a unique solution for the issue, and Kyle Larson seems to follow in his footsteps.

Kyle Larson on the failing cool suits

“I’m not scared of the cool shirt by any means still. But yeah, this week I’m going to try… so Chase, he runs a cool suit every now and then.” Kyle Larson took the worst of COTA’s heat last week after his cool suit failed during the race. The overheating cockpit made it difficult to race. At the same time, however, he is not afraid to wear the suit once again, even though it heats up even more if it fails. As a quick solution, he is looking forward to something that Elliott has been doing for a while.

“I think he runs some device called the Chibi, which is like a little like a pad thing that goes over the core, and I think it connects to like a fan sort of thing. So I’m going to try that this weekend just to see what it feels like.”

This seems like a further innovation in the already advanced cool suit technology. However, Chase Elliott earlier claimed that he is not the inventor: “It was something Jimmie used to run back in the day. I adopted it from something that he did.”

The cool suit works very much like a car radiator, circulating cold liquid over the drivers’ bodies, which keeps them cool. This was also recently introduced in Formula 1 because of some specific races like the Qatar Grand Prix, where extreme heat has been a major issue.

But the issue escalates when NASCAR drivers take it to the track on venues like the Circuit of the Americas. Apart from the cockpit being closed up, there is also the fact that the Next Gen car heats more than the previous era of cars. However, there have been many cases of the cool suit simply failing during races, making the situation worse for the drivers.

How do the cool suits end up failing?

The cool suits remain largely dependent on the liquid that flows through the suit using a small pump at the bottom. The little pipes that are spread all over the suit serve that purpose. While the mechanism does not seem very complex at first, it still has its chances of failure.

The first and one of the more common issues is the pump simply failing. If it does not continue to pump enough coolant on the suit, it fails to serve the purpose, and the drivers then have no external way to cool themselves down. Moreover, the thickness of the suit further restricts airflow, which makes the situation worse for the drivers, as it happened at COTA last week.

Apart from that, the hose can also cause trouble sometimes. In a few cases, it might disconnect from the main pump or get kinked at a certain angle when the drivers sit down, restricting the coolant’s flow around the driver.

These situations can make the race extremely tough for the drivers. However, as Chase Elliott found an alternative, Kyle Larson feels positive about the upcoming race at Phoenix. The race is expected to be slightly cooler than it was at COTA, and drivers should be able to manage without a cool suit as well.