LEBANON – NASCAR driver Riley Herbst was mentally and physically tested like never before during the NASCAR Xfinity Series Tennessee Lottery 250 on Saturday at Nashville Superspeedway.
At the beginning of the race, Herbst’s cooling suit malfunctioned leaving the water to not cool and to get hot.
“On the grid it made a weird noise… but I thought, ‘What are we gonna do when we’re rolling off?’ So we kept going,” Herbst said. “I just felt it getting it hotter and hotter and hotter and hotter. So I made the executive decision to unplug it. That’s risky because you can’t plug it back in.”
NASCAR drivers use cooling suits to help stay cool their body temperatures during the race. The suit has tubes sewn into the shirt with cold water running through them during the race. The sole purpose of the tubes is to aid the driver’s internal cooling system throughout any lengthy race.
Temperatures in the Nashville area reached into the mid-90s. Inside the cars, temperatures were measured as high as 129 degrees in A.J. Allmendinger’s car.
More: Weather forecast for Ally 400 NASCAR Cup Series race at Nashville Superspeedway
Herbst ended the race in sixth place, but admitted it got tougher as the race went along and even contemplated calling it quits.
“Stage 2 was the hardest. That’s when I got a little spotty vision,” he said. “My feet got hot. It was just a miserable day.”
Herbst is scheduled to race in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Ally 400, which is set to begin at 2:30 p.m.
After the race for Herbst said he’s planning on trying to recover and shift his focus on making the Ally 400 a much better experience.
“I’ll go to the field care center and get a couple bags of fluid, go to sleep (for) 30 minutes then hop in a cup car for 400 miles and try to go learn,” he said. “That’s the goal for tomorrow. (The) goal is to finish on the lead lap.”
Lawrence Goss is The Tennessean’s sports intern with the Sports Journalism Institute. Contact Lawrence at lgoss@gannett.com. Follow Lawrence on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, @iamlgoss.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Riley Herbst’s cool suit malfunctions in Nashville NASCAR Xfinity race
Read the full article here
Discussion about this post