Riley Herbst

• As a native of Las Vegas, Riley Herbst should feel right at home in Nashville. The capital of Tennessee may be best known as Music City, but its bright lights and lively nightlife have earned it another nickname – “Nashvegas.” That Nashville Superspeedway is an intermediate-style oval makes Herbst feel even more welcome. His history at intermediates is strong. His best career NASCAR Xfinity Series results have come at intermediates, where he owns a pair of second-place finishes – Feb. 29, 2020 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, and July 9, 2020 at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta.

• Riley Herbst and his fellow NASCAR Xfinity Series drivers head to the Pacific Northwest this weekend for the inaugural Pacific Office Automation 147 at Portland (Ore.) International Raceway. The 75-lap race on Saturday around the 1.967-mile, 12-turn road course marks the first NASCAR national touring series race at Portland since the Camping World Truck Series competed there in 1999-2000. While the track hosts the Xfinity Series for the first time, it serves as the second of six road-course races on the 2022 schedule. In late March, the Xfinity Series made its first road-course stop of the year, competing at the 3.426-mile, 20-turn Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas. Herbst finished 26th in that race, one of only four finishes outside of the top-10 for him this season.

• While Riley Herbst is a Las Vegas native, the 23-year-old now calls Charlotte, North Carolina, home. The driver of the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing moved to the Queen City when he was 17, taking his family name from the deserts of the southwest to the asphalt tracks of NASCAR. The third-generation racer began racing go-karts at age 5, competing in events up and down the West Coast. He soon followed in his family’s footsteps, transitioning to off-road racing in 2006 where his grandfather, Jerry, and uncles Tim and Ed, and father Troy, are all Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame inductees for being championship-winning off-road racers. But by age 10, Herbst sought a return to pavement. It began with Legends cars before moving up to Speed Trucks and Super Late Models, where in 2015 Herbst was a regular at Irwindale (Calif.) Speedway, running both classes and winning the Speed Trucks track championship. That set the stage for Herbst’s NASCAR path as he competed in the K&N Pro Series beginning in 2016, a developmental league regionally split into two divisions – K&N Pro Series East and K&N Pro Series West. Herbst ran the full Pro Series West schedule, scoring seven top-five and 10 top-10 finishes. He made three Pro Series East starts and finished among the top-10 each time. Herbst advanced to the ARCA Menards Series in 2017 and won his first career ARCA race June 9 at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway. His scored his career-first pole a week prior at Elko (Minn.) Speedway, and his six top-fives and 10 top-10s on the year earned him the series’ rookie-of-the-year title. Another season of ARCA followed in 2018 with Herbst tallying eight top-fives and 15 top-10s. He complemented that ARCA campaign with a smattering of races across the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, K&N Series and CARS Late Model Stock Car Tour. Herbst even made his Xfinity Series debut June 17 at Iowa Speedway in Newton, qualifying ninth and finishing an impressive sixth.

• Riley Herbst comes into Saturday’s SRS Distribution 250 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth riding a wave of front-running consistency. The driver of the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) is on a five-race top-10 streak, punctuated by a season-best third-place finish in the Xfinity Series’ most recent race May 7 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway. It was his eighth top-10 in the 11 races run this season – tying Herbst for the second-most top-10s this year with fellow Las Vegas-native Noah Gragson – and it has Herbst eighth in the championship standings, 54 points above the top-12 playoff cutline.

• Riley Herbst comes into the Mahindra ROXOR 200 NASCAR Xfinity Series race Saturday at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway riding a wave of front-running consistency. The driver of the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing has finished among the top-10 in his last four races, giving Herbst a total of seven top-10 finishes in the 10 races run this season. Now in his third full year of Xfinity Series racing, it’s his best start to a season. He is currently ninth in the championship standings, bettering his 2020 standing after 10 races (11th) and his 2021 standing after 10 races (15th.)

RILEY HERBST, No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang – HOW SOLID WAS THIS CAR TODAY? “I thought it was fairly good from spring last year we finished probably a lap down in 19th, so to come here and finish third and to honestly have a top-five car is just a testament to Stewart-Haas Racing and everyone at Ford Performance and Monster Energy. This wasn’t one of my favorite racetracks, and I still think we need about a tenth a lap to try and win these races here in Darlington, but we’re getting closer and it’s good.”

• Riley Herbst and Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway are an appropriate pair. Herbst is the driver of the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing and Dover is best known as the “Monster Mile”. At a track that can chew up and spit out even the most seasoned racers, Herbst has acquitted himself well on the concrete-clad, 1-mile oval. In four career NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at Dover, Herbst has scored two top-10 finishes with a best result of sixth on Aug. 22, 2020. He has never finished outside the top-20.

• Back from a well-deserved break during the NASCAR Xfinity Series off weekend, Riley Herbst is ready to get back behind the wheel of the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang and pick up where he left off. After spending Easter weekend out West, the 23-year-old driver will now travel to the Deep South for Saturday’s Ag-Pro 300 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, the ninth race of the 2022 season. Prior to the off weekend, Herbst earned back-to-back top-10 finishes at two of the shortest tracks on the NASCAR circuit – Richmond (Va.) Raceway and Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. He’ll now move onto the largest oval on the circuit – the 2.66-mile monster known as Talladega.

• Back-to-back races in the Commonwealth of Virginia have Riley Herbst seeking additional riches in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race Friday night at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. The driver of the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) finished a strong fifth last Saturday at Richmond (Va.) Raceway, and in addition to it being his fourth top-10 in the last four short-track races on the Xfinity Series schedule, it also placed Herbst into the Dash 4 Cash. If Herbst finishes ahead of his fellow Dash 4 Cash combatants – Ty Gibbs, Sam Mayer and AJ Allmendinger – he will get a $100,000 payday and automatic entry into the next Dash 4 Cash round April 23 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.

• The Richmond 250 will mark Herbst’s fifth career NASCAR Xfinity Series start at Richmond. In his four previous Xfinity Series starts at the .75-mile oval, the driver of the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) has scored three top-10 finishes, with his best result coming in his most recent visit to the track – fifth in last September’s GoBowling 250.

• After three weeks out West, the NASCAR Xfinity Series heads to the Southeast for the Nalley Cars 250 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. In the series’ return to NASCAR’s hotbed, Riley Herbst expects to turn some hot laps around the recently reconfigured 1.54-mile oval. Since the driver of the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing last raced at Atlanta in July, the banking has been increased from 24 degrees to 28 degrees and the track has been narrowed from 55-feet wide to 40-feet wide, and it’s all covered in fresh asphalt. The goal of the reconstruction was to re-create the kind of pack-style racing seen at the behemoth, 2.5-mile Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway and the even bigger 2.66-mile Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. Herbst has embraced these changes for two reasons – he finished an impressive fourth in the season-opening race at Daytona and he was one of the few drivers to test at the new Atlanta in early January, giving him a leg up on his Xfinity Series counterparts.

The NASCAR Xfinity race had to go under caution after Riley Herbst spun out in Phoenix while coming through turns 3 and 4. There wasn’t any extracurricular activity or bumping going on. As the driver pulled through the turn, his wheels skidded out and he lost control. While the...

Earlier this week, NASCAR racer Riley Herbst spun out on the track in Phoenix and… The post NASCAR Driver Riley Herbst Gives Update After Brutal Crash appeared first on Outsider.

• The NASCAR Xfinity Series heads into the third leg of its West Coast swing with the United Rentals 200 on Saturday at Phoenix Raceway. After kicking off the season at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, the stepping-stone division to the elite NASCAR Cup Series headed west with races at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, and Las Vegas Motor Speedway before rolling into Phoenix. Riley Herbst, driver of the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), has shown speed and strength at each race, with a fourth-place finish at Daytona, a ninth-place drive at Fontana, and a 14th-place effort last Saturday at Las Vegas, where Herbst rallied after getting collected in a late-race accident. The cumulative effect has Herbst a solid seventh in the championship standings with an average finish of ninth.

It wasn’t too long ago when Riley Herbst was in the stands at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway rooting for seven-time NASCAR series champion Jimmie Johnson. Herbst, from the legendary off-road racing (and Las Vegas gas station, car wash and casino owning) family, would take in the action and envision the day when it would be his turn to compete against NASCAR’S finest on the hometown track.

This Saturday’s Alsco Uniforms 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway will be a sort of homecoming for Riley Herbst, the driver of the No. 98 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford. The surname Herbst is well established amongst Las Vegas motor racing fans, as Herbst’s grandfather Jerry, uncles Tim and Ed, and his father Troy are all legendary Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame inductees as championship-winning off-road racers.

With top 10 finishes in his first two starts of 2022, Riley Herbst appears to be inching toward the first victory of his NASCAR Xfinity Series career. Only he’d prefer it to be by leaps and bounds. “I think this has to be the year, to be honest,” the...

• NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Riley Herbst is heading home. The Alsco Uniforms 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series race Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway is a hometown race for the 23-year-old driver as Herbst is a Las Vegas native, having grown up in the Entertainment Capital of the World. The Herbst name is well known in Vegas’ motorsports circles. Riley’s grandfather Jerry, uncles Tim and Ed, and father Troy, are all Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame inductees as championship-winning off-road racers. Now, the youngest Herbst intends to keep the family’s motorsports legacy going in the NASCAR world.

IS THAT ONE OF THE HARDER EARNED TOP-TEN FINISHES YOU’VE HAD? “Yeah, it is just frustrating because I feel like we were really fast on long runs but we just couldn’t really fire off. Once we got about 20 laps into a run I felt like we were a top-three car for sure. It is good to get top-10’s and that was our goal at the beginning of the year so we will keep stacking them.”