Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series event at Nashville Superspeedway was a hot one, with the heat index throwing temperatures above 100-degrees throughout the afternoon in Tennessee.
Inside the cars, things got even hotter as temperatures exceeded 135 degrees in the cockpit of the NASCAR Xfinity Series cars, making the two-hour-long event on Saturday uncomfortable, and that’s when things go to plan.
Multiple drivers, including Natalie Decker, had issues with the cooling systems in their cars, which made it near impossible to cool themselves down.
Update by Derek:
Natalie’s cool shirt has stopped working on lap 10, she’s hot but determined to finish the race out and learn as much as she can.Ice bags passed to her every caution to help keep her cool.
— Natalie Decker (@NatalieRacing) June 25, 2022
For Decker, who brought the MBM Motorsports No. 66 home in 31st-place, her cool shirt stopped working 10 laps into the event, meaning ice bags had to be passed to the driver under caution in order to keep her cool.
Decker was able to finish the race, but would make a trip to the infield care center after the event was complete, in order to get help cooling down.
Equally as pleasant (AKA not pleasant at all), was the situation Noah Gragson dealt with in the final stage of Saturday’s 188-lap event, as the JR Motorsports driver says he threw up on himself twice with about 50 to go.
Well… hot ass day! Threw up on myself twice with about 50 to go inside the racecar. 135°+ in the car. No bueno. Gambled on strategy and didn't workout. Proud of our group @JRMotorsports. Congrats @J_Allgaier on the dub.
— Noah Gragson (@NoahGragson) June 25, 2022
Logistically speaking, how vomiting on yourself in a racecar would work out is… sketchy, at best, but regardless, Gragson would finish the event in 13th-place, after pit strategy didn’t work out for the JR Motorsports driver.
Ryan Vargas, Kyle Sieg, Anthony Alfredo, Parker Retzlaff, Josh Williams, and AJ Allmendinger were among the drivers that either visited the infield care center or got medical attention next to their cars post-race.
Glad everyone was alright but man… just sucks to see all of this when we could easily run a summer race at night.#NASCAR pic.twitter.com/AsUwLQehGp
— RJ Starcevic (@RJStarcevic) June 25, 2022
