Kasey Kahne spent nearly six hours behind the wheel of his No. 5 Team Hendrick Chevrolet in Sunday’s Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
And a good chunk of that time, the temperatures inside his car hovered around 100 degrees.
Try driving down a freeway for six hours at 70 mph with no air conditioner and you may get a slight idea of what Kahne and his fellow NASCAR Cup drivers endured for much of Sunday’s race, doing close to 200 mph for much of those six hours.
Kahne exited his race car first along pit road and then again when he rolled into victory lane, bending over several times while enduring cramps from exhaustion.
Even in victory lane, Kahne continued to battle cramps did a couple of media interviews before slumping to the ground and having team members pass him cold towels and water.
Because light was quickly evaporating, Kahne endured all the photos and celebrations of kissing the bricks while still battling cramps.
Finally, about an hour or so after crossing the finish line, he was taken to the infield care center to get a couple of IVs of fluid replenishment.
On Monday’s edition of NASCAR America, our group of analysts talked about how exhausting racing is normally — and how it was so elevated during Sunday’s hot and lengthy race.
Check out the video above.
