We are officially into the second half of the NASCAR season. And, Nashville marks the steady crawl toward the playoffs as drivers fight tooth and nail to secure a Championship 4 spot. The ones who are yet to secure a trophy are revving up their game. However, as demonstrated in Saturday’s Xfinity race, great obstacles lay in their path.

We already know about the notorious rain delays that animated several races this season. But Mother Nature is back with another dilemma. Noah Gragson and his track rivals were left sweating, panting, and downing gallons of water to beat the heat at the Nashville Superspeedway. But then a technical snag turned their day hotter.

Noah Gragson fumbled mid-race

Stewart-Haas Racing drivers already have a lot on their plate. With the team set to shutter at the end of 2024, they are on the hunt for new motor homes. Now a suit malfunction is getting on their nerves as well. The Tennessee Lottery 250 witnessed soaring temperatures in the mid-90s with a heat index of 105. Inside the cars, temperatures reached around 130°F. NASCAR drivers, including Noah Gragson and Riley Herbst, wore cool shirts to beat the heat; cold water circulates through the apparel and cools down the driver.

But several drivers complained that their shirts stopped working. Stewart-Haas Racing’s Xfinity fixture, Riley Herbst, was one of them. “I just felt it getting hotter and hotter and hotter.” So he took a tough call at the time, which spared him from the now ‘hot’ suit. He pulled through despite the consequences: “I made the executive decision to unplug it…Stage 2 was the hardes, I got a little spotty vision. But the cold water in the car and the ice got us through.” But Herbst’s SHR Cup colleague, Noah Gragson, did not follow suit.

Post-race, Gragson recalled the steamy debacle that the cool shirt exacerbated: “I think these Xfinity cars feel hotter in the interior, the cockpit. I don’t know if that thing gets hot and it stops working. It worked in the first 20 laps and then it got hot and stopped working. So…it sucks.”

But Noah Gragson could not take the right call like his more experienced Xfinity teammate. He also regretted the situation: “I didn’t unplug mine, probably should have. I felt like it was gonna be alright…everything is just super hot, you know.” Yet the extreme heat could not steal the drivers’ determination, as they produced stellar results.

Drivers prevailed in the Nashville oven

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Outside, Nashville recorded scorching temperatures in the mid-90s. But inside the NASCAR cars, it felt like an oven. NASCAR decided to check during the second stage, and AJ Allmendinger’s No. 16 Chevrolet revealed a steamy 129 degrees. And with the cool shirts malfunctioning, it must have been unbearable. But the drivers prevailed in these conditions.

While race winner John Hunter Nemechek had to deal with a water bottle on his grill, his neighbors tackled the intense heat. Chandler Smith took Herbst’s path and elected not to use the cool shirt, finishing second. Jesse Love also had a suit malfunction and yet managed a 3rd-place finish. SHR teammates Noah Gragson and Riley Herbst secured the 5th and 6th spots, respectively.

Hence, the heat was no barrier to the drivers’ stellar performance. Denny Hamlin, the Nashville Cup race pole sitter, emphasized heat endurance. “Some people take heat better than others. That’s a factor. That has to weigh on you in some shape or form.”

The Cup Series race is also slated to experience some steamy temperatures. Let us see how well Cup drivers manage to beat the heat.