NASCAR Cup Series star admits falling asleep behind the wheel mid-race

A multiple-time NASCAR Cup Series winner has admitted that he once fell asleep behind the wheel of his car during a race.

The race in question was the legendary Rolex 24 at Daytona, a race he has competed in a staggering 14 times.

In Jeff Gluck's '12 Questions' feature for The Athletic this week, AJ Allmendinger was asked to recall his most miserable time inside a race car – leading to him recounting a story from outside his NASCAR career.

Allmendinger harkened back to a Rolex 24 edition in which he had one of the late night/early morning shifts in the car, which ended up seeing him just roll around the 2.5 mile tri-oval for almost his whole two-hour stint in the car under caution.

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Allmendinger: I woke up on the apron

While he didn't single out the year that saw him fall asleep for 'probably 15 seconds', the 2013 race appears to fit the bill – with a 1hr 45min caution for fog notably featuring in that edition.

As Allmendinger tells it: “One year in the Rolex 24, I got one of those 3 or 4 a.m. stints. I got in the car, the caution came out as soon as I got in and then we had a fog delay – but we had to keep running under yellow for like two hours.

“That was just misery because I was tired, there was no adrenaline flowing, and my whole stint was two hours under yellow. It got to the point where I kind of rested my head up against the side and woke up way down on the apron, down the back straightaway. So I had fallen asleep for probably 15 seconds.

“I just remember thinking how miserable that was, because there was nothing you could do. I got to the point where I was asking (team owner Michael) Shank, 'Can I pit?' and he’s like, 'No, bud, we just gotta ride it out'. And the worst part was when the fog lifted, I’d run out of time, so they pitted me and got me out of the car.”

The 2013 edition of the race saw Allmendinger partner with Marcos Ambrose, Oswaldo Negri Jr., John Pew and Justin Wilson to finish third in the event, behind Juan Pablo Montoya's Chip Ganassi squad.

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