LEBANON, Tenn. – How chaotic can a race at Nashville Superspeedway possibly be?
You really don’t need to look much further than Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series’ race at the 1.33-mile circuit.
The reason?
One very hot and slick concrete racetrack causing some greasy tires and loose race cars. And with a hot track came some very hot tempers. On a day that saw a record-tying 11 caution flags, there were plenty of upset drivers taken out early in the 188-lap event.
One of them was taken out on lap 1.
The first green flag run of the day lasted approximately five seconds. As the field entered turn 1, among them was Stefan Parsons of SS Green Light Racing. The driver of the No. 07 was collected in a crash involving Justin Allgaier and RSS Racing brothers Ryan Sieg and Kyle Sieg.
The incident took him out of the race. Frontstretch reporters caught up with him at the infield care center.
The next restart didn’t fare much better. This time, the caution waved for the result of Austin Hill‘s contact with Ty Gibbs.
But hey, at least they made it to turn 3 that time, right?
The story wasn’t over for both Gibbs and Hill, either. After another caution involving Chad Chastain and Ryan Ellis, the Nos. 19 and 21 of Gibbs and Hill found each other yet again. This time, Hill returned the favor to Gibbs (supposedly) and tagged the back bumper of the Joe Gibbs Racing driver, sending him into the outside wall.
The incident took out not only Gibbs, but Spire Motorsports driver and Friday night’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series winner Carson Hocevar, both of whom were confused by Hill’s contact.
Hill swore it wasn’t anything personal post-race.
But before the two drivers could leave the infield care center, not one, but two more caution flags waved.
The first was for Sam Hunt Racing driver Connor Mosack, who spun by himself on lap 62 and made hard contact with the outside wall. He was out via the damage vehicle policy.
The other, however, involved even more Joe Gibbs Racing and Richard Childress Racing drivers. Sammy Smith and Sheldon Creed were involved in a multi-car crash on lap 70. The incident also collected JR Motorsports teammate Brandon Jones.
All six incidents occurred before the end of stage two. However, despite a chaotic showing in the early stages of the 250-mile event, a majority of the final stage was surprisingly tame with the exception of a two-car incident between Parker Kligerman and Kaz Grala on lap 105.
However, the restart was followed by a 75-lap green flag run – the longest of the day. It ended right before the final stage when Chastain spun one more time on the frontstretch, creating an overtime restart.
With two laps remaining, AJ Allmendinger held off Riley Herbst and the rest of the field easily to earn the win in The Music City. Of course, it didn’t happen without at least one more crash occurring while coming to the line just to put one last punctuation mark on what was a hot and chaotic day.
Not many walked away without some damage or marks of their own as a result of the record-tying day in Nashville.
Heck, not even the winner did, and that’s a fact Cole Custer wasn’t happy about.
Only six cars failed to finish the race when all was said and done, but the Xfinity field clearly made plenty of noise in Nashville, although not necessarily to the type of tune you’d expect from the Music City.
Dalton Hopkins began writing for Frontstretch in April 2021. Currently, he is the lead writer for the weekly Thinkin' Out Loudcolumn, co-host of the Happy Hour podcast, and one of our lead reporters. Beforehand, he wrote for IMSA shortly after graduating from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2019. Simultaneously, he also serves as a Captain in the US Army.
Follow Dalton on Twitter @PitLaneCPT