By Seth Eggert, Associate Editor
Avoiding significant contact is paramount when racing on the high banks of Daytona Int’l Speedway, however Riley Herbst overcame an incident on pit road to score a top-five finish in the Wawa 250.
During the first stage break of the scheduled 250-mile race, Herbst brought his No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang Dark Horse down pit road for four fresh Goodyear Racing tires and Sunoco fuel. Leaving his pit box, the Stewart-Haas Racing driver was hit in the left rear tire by his teammate, Cole Custer.
The miscommunication and ill-timed exit for Custer left him with significant damage. Luckily for Herbst, he emerged unscathed, although he initially thought that the trackbar had been broken in the hit. Despite pitting an extra time to inspect for damage, the NASCAR Xfinity Series veteran rallied for a runner-up finish in Stage 2.
With Custer’s damage and other issues for Ford Performance drivers, Herbst was largely stuck in a sea of Chevrolets and Toyotas for the remainder of the race. Two multi-car crashes in the closing laps pushed the race into overtime.
Herbst lined up inside the top-10 in overtime. The lane that he was in moved forward behind eventual race winner Ryan Truex, Parker Kligerman, and A.J. Allmendinger. Unfortunately, Herbst never got a chance to challenge for the win as Allmendinger spun off the nose of Kligerman’s car. The ensuing caution ended the race with the Las Vegas, NV native finishing fourth.
“We just weren’t good enough,” Herbst admitted. “We gave the 20 a pretty good shot. I feel like that’s what won him the race, so congrats to everybody over there. They were really fast today, but I don’t know. I thought we worked really hard, and we had a fast Monster Energy car for sure, but we just weren’t as good as we needed to be for sure. We were just a little too bogged down and to bound up, but we’ll go back to work.
“I know everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing that’s what they do, they go to work. We’ll get it better for Talladega in the playoffs and to come home here in fourth with some decent points, we’ll take that after last week, but all in all just not good enough.”
The fourth-place finish was Herbst’s fifth top-five finish of the season. It was also the 25-year-old’s 32nd career top-five finish.
Herbst is locked into the Xfinity playoffs by virtue of his win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway prior to the Olympic break. He is 141-points behind leader Justin Allgaier.
Next for Herbst is the Sports Clips VFW Help A Hero 200 at Darlington Raceway. In nine starts at ‘The Track Too Tough to Tame’ he has two top-five and four top-10 finishes. Herbst’s best finish at Darlington, third, came in the 2022 Throwback race weekend.
The Sports Clips VFW Help A Hero 200 at Darlington is scheduled for Saturday, August 31 at 3:30 p.m. ET on USA Network. The race will also be broadcast on the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.