Is that a racing helmet or a Notre Dame football helmet?

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — University of Notre Dame football fans may have done a double take if they were at Indianapolis Motor Speedway the past couple of the days.

That’s because Indy NXT driver James Roe had a special helmet during his two races on the IMS road course this weekend. His helmet looked exactly like a Notre Dame football helmet.

Here are some photos of the helmet (taken after Saturday’s Indy NXT race):

“Cool to be able to do it as an Irish guy,” Roe, who was born in Ireland, said. “To represent Notre Dame here and just keep it going.”

News 8 Sports’ Andrew Chernoff caught up with the Andretti Global driver after Saturday’s race and asked him how the idea for the helmet started.

“Via the chief storyteller at Notre Dame,” Roe said. “Said, ‘Hey, we’ve got to tie the fan bases together.’ So here we are.”

Roe and his helmet also attended Notre Dame football’s Blue-Gold Spring Game on April 20th.

“It’s (the helmet) pretty cool,” Roe said. “It’s going on a mantle piece that’s for sure.”

Roe finished 15th on Friday and came home in fourth place on Saturday.

“A coulda, shoulda, woulda weekend,” Roe said. “Loads of pace. Right there all weekend pace-wise, even in qualifying. Yesterday’s (Friday) race was on me. Broke too late into (turn) seven on a bump and flat-spotted everything. So that was an easy podium I threw away. And then today (Saturday), got hit at the start, fell back two or three spots, climbed our way back forward and finished P4.”

Roe is currently 8th in the Indy NXT standings.

The next Indy NXT race is set for June 2 on the Streets of Detroit.