By David Morgan, Associate Editor
LEBANON, Tenn. – Mother Nature played no favorites in Saturday’s Tennessee Lottery 250 at Nashville Superspeedway, especially for those pulling double duty to run both the NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Cup Series races on back-to-back days under blazing sun.
When the checkered flag flew, a number of drivers required attention in the form of ice, cold water, and a visit to the Infield Care Center to aid in recovery before strapping back in less than 24 hours later.
John Hunter Nemechek fared the best of the bunch, winning the race and coming away seemingly unscathed. Although he did note that once he got out of the car, the heat finally started to set in, but it wasn’t anything he couldn’t overcome before Sunday.
“It was what, 130, 140, in the race car today? I don’t think just your average person could go sit in that and perform at a high heart rate,” said Nemechek. “I mean, my heart rate sitting here is 135, still. I guarantee if I pull up my average from the day, I’m going to be in the 160-170 average for the day for close to three hours.”
He added that through training he has done for marathons and Iron Man events, he has developed a protocol of his own to help him recover and would be putting that into play this evening. Should he need to get additional fluids from the Care Center, he did not rule that out either.
“I have a standard protocol that I follow for post-race and recovery and what not, so definitely going to hydrate a lot, eat more than one person should in one sitting, and then get some really good rest tonight.
“My plan is to do it the old-fashioned way. Like I said I have a standard procedure or protocol that goes back to training for Iron Man and marathons and different things of that sort. Just standard hydration and nutrition protocol that we’re able to have in place.”
Asked whether he had any misgivings about running in such heat a day before the Cup race, Nemechek jokingly said, “I love it when it’s hot. Separates the men from the boys.”
As for the rest of those pulling double duty, they were a little worse for the wear.
Noah Gragson was once of those who preserved through the heat to deliver a top-five finish in his No. 30 Rhett Jones Racing Ford. Afterwards, he climbed from his car and immediately asked for ice and cold water from his crew before sitting down on the ground beside his car to try and escape from the heat.
Back on his feet a few moments later, Gragson thanked the team for the drive and explained that a cool suit failure was to blame for his struggles with the heat.
“It feels good. My cool shirt stopped working there in the middle of the race. It got super hot, but I’m really thankful for this Rhett Jones Racing team,” Gragson said.
“They did a great job. I’ve kind of struggled here in the past, but we were pretty good all day. We just needed a little bit more right-rear grip, but we’ll keep working on it. It was better than Charlotte, which was our first race as a team, so we just want to keep building.”
Gragson added that he was more optimistic when it came to the heat in the Cup car on Sunday.
“Our cool shirts have worked in the Cup car, it stopped working in this thing. It was pumping hot water all the way through. All through these lines, it just pumps hot water, so your core just stays really hot.
“Tomorrow’s a longer race. The Cup cars aren’t as hot, so hopefully it’ll be better.”
Riley Herbst was seemingly the most affected by the heat, with a cool suit failure leading to vision issues at one point during the race.
Despite an unscheduled trip to pit road at the end of Stage 2 to bring his car to the attention of his crew to help get him some relief, Herbst battled through it and finished the day in sixth-place, making note afterwards that he would be paying a trip to the Care Center to help him recover.
“I’m hot,” Herbst said. “Hopefully, I’ll go to the infield care center and get a couple bags of fluid and then go to sleep in 30 minutes and hop in a Cup car for 400 miles and try to go learn. That’s the goal tomorrow and just make all the laps. The goal is to finish on the lead lap and just learn, learn, learn.”
“I don’t feel burned, but on the grid it made a weird noise. It clunked a little bit, but what are we gonna do when we’re rolling off, so we kept going.
“I just felt it get hotter and hotter and hotter, so I made the executive decision to unplug it. That’s risky because you can’t really plug it back in, so that was a 100 percent decision and we did. Stage two was the hardest. That’s when it got a little spotty vision, but cold water in the car and the ice got us through.”
Herbst added that he would take additional precautions heading into Sunday by passing over his cool suit over to Rick Ware Racing to make sure everything is in order before climbing in the Cup car in what looks to be similar weather.
“I have a different shirt. I’m gonna give both shirts to the Rick Ware guys and have them make sure they both work. I don’t think it was the suit. I think it was the unit.”
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