Riley Herbst perseveres through cool suit failure to net Nashville top-10

LEBANON, Tenn. — Riley Herbst turned in one of the best efforts of his career, getting a top-10 finish on a hot day when his cool suit wreaked havoc on him.

Saturday saw the heat index reach 105 degrees and temperatures inside the car soar to over 130 degrees. The cool suit provides relief, sending cool water through tubes attached to a shirt the driver wears under their firesuit.

When the cool suit fails, however, that water stay stagnant and can warm up to a near-boiling point. That can scald the driver’s skin if it isn’t drained.

In stage one, Herbst’s cool suit failed.

“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,” he said post-race.

Herbst still placed seventh in the stage on lap 45. During the break, crew chief Davin Restivo had someone on the team hand Herbst a hose to drain the water. However, it was such a quick caution that Herbst didn’t have a chance to drain it.

Herbst hung on to finish 10th in the second stage on lap 90. During the break, enough was enough.

“Davin, my man. I’ve tried to reach it [the hose to evacuate the hot water] but I can’t. I need some cold water, H-2-O,” he said on the radio.

Herbst pitted right away, even when it was closed, and the team drained the water.

“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,” he said post-race.

Before the final stage started, series director Wayne Auton radioed to Herbst, asking if he was okay. Herbst tried to radio to the team and Auton but water had gotten into the microphone and caused it to short. Finally, he confirmed he was okay and readied himself to rally from outside of the top-25.

In 40 laps, Herbst jumped to 14th before a caution flew. Under caution, his crew was fast and pushed him to seventh. He backed up their performance, jumping to fifth and ultimately getting sixth.

“It was questionable for sure. Davin and these guys work too hard. I couldn’t give up. I wanted to a few times because I got a race tomorrow. It was getting scary there with my vision. But we pulled it together, gained on the points, finished sixth. I’m proud of these guys,” Herbst said.

Herbst will race in the NASCAR Cup Series’ Ally 400 in the No. 15 Rick Ware Racing Ford. It’s going to be another hot day with a high temperature forecast to be 89 degrees with a heat index in the 100s.

“I’ll go to the infield care center and get a couple bags of fluid. Then I’ll go to sleep 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,” Herbst said. “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.”

Herbst is now fifth in the regular-season points standings. He is 103 points ahead of the playoff cutline with nine races left until the NASCAR Xfinity Series playoffs start.