Do NASCAR Drivers Wear Diapers During Races? Inside the Long-Standing Rumors
Per NASCAR rules, once drivers are inside their cars they cannot leave them, not even to go to the bathroom.
Updated Oct. 29 2025, 2:45 p.m. ET
The sports world is the source of many practices and protocols that those outside of the specific sport may or understand or be privy to. This also includes the world of NASCAR, which has faced a long-standing rumor regarding its drivers wearing diapers during races.
What exactly is the truth behind this suspicion and where did the rumor originate? Let’s examine things further.
Do NASCAR drivers wear diapers during races?
Back in 2017, USA Today’s for the Win asked some of the most popular NASCAR drivers what happens when nature calls during the lengthy races — and the general consensus was that they try their best to hold it in, but sometimes they have to relieve themselves, without a diaper, of course.
“It’s rare that it happens, but sometimes it does, and if you think you can hold it, hold it,” NASCAR superstar Dale Earnhardt Jr. told the outlet at the time. “But it’s also a distraction, and racing a car, you need so much focus, [so] if it’s a distraction, you go ahead and get rid of that distraction."
“But you’re hot and sweaty and soaking wet already,” he continued. “I guess it’s so uncommon outside of racing that it’s a shock to most people, but in our sport, when you hear about it, there’s a chuckle or two, but it doesn’t really surprise anybody that it happens to everybody once in a while.”
In case you aren’t aware about NASCAR rules, once drivers are inside their cars they cannot leave them, not even to go to the bathroom.
Earnhardt wasn’t the only racing star to share the details of the bathroom situation while in the middle of a race. Brad Keselowski also shared his take with the outlet. “Once you get adrenaline going and sweating, you could go for hours,” Brad said.
“You could probably go for a day without having to go. If something happens where you lose adrenaline or you’re not sweating, then you have problems — specifically when both of those happen — because now you’re in the shaking machine,” he added.
The NASCAR organization is currently making headlines for an entirely different reason.
On Tuesday, Oct. 28, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Bell formally “dismissed NASCAR's counterclaim against the two teams suing the racing series over antitrust allegations,” according to ESPN.
Judge Bell ruled in favor of 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports, which boasts NBA icon Michael Jordan as one of its co-owners, and dismissed NASCAR's counterclaim that Curtis Polk, also a co-owner of 23XI, “illegally colluded with other teams during negotiations for new charters,”per the outlet.
"The evidence here establishes that not only were individual negotiations 'available,' but NASCAR had such negotiations regularly during the negotiation period," Judge Bell wrote in his judgment.
"And, those individual negotiations achieved concrete results, including the final 2025 Charter agreement that was signed by 13 teams acting individually (and contrary to the supposed 'joint agreement')," the order read, per ESPN.