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Riley Herbst Notes of Interest |
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• There’s 133 feet of elevation change at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas, but it’s a level playing field for Riley Herbst and his fellow NASCAR Xfinity Series drivers. The 3.426-mile, 20-turn road course hosts the Xfinity Series for the first time this weekend, which means everyone in Saturday’s Pit Boss 250 is a rookie, at least when it comes to navigating COTA. Herbst is in his second full season of Xfinity Series racing, and the driver of the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang sees opportunity in the blank slate that is COTA.
• While it is the first Xfinity Series race at COTA, is it definitely not the first Xfinity Series race on a road course. Road-course racing has become a staple of NASCAR and Herbst has five career road-course starts, all coming in the last 10 months. The 22-year-old racer from Las Vegas has a best road-course finish of seventh, earned last August on the infield layout of Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway. Outside of the Xfinity Series, Herbst has one additional road-course start – August 2019 at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International where he finished 12th.
• COTA is more than 1,600 miles away from Dover (Del.) International Speedway, site of last Saturday’s Xfinity Series race, and Herbst is one of many drivers happy to put some serious distance between himself and 1-mile, concrete oval. Herbst’s Dover outing had barely begun when trouble found him. On lap 33 of the 200-lap at the aptly named Monster Mile, John Hunter Nemechek contacted the rear bumper of Herbst’s No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang as the duo drove into turn three. Herbst was sent spinning all the way to turn four but was able to keep his racecar from contacting the wall. He brought it to pit road twice during the ensuing caution period for fresh tires and damage repair. This put the Monster Energy driver deep in the field, and a loose-handling racecar made forward progress all the more difficult. Crew chief Richard Boswell used a bit of strategy to gain some stage points, keeping Herbst out on the track to eventually crack the top-10. When the second stage ended, Herbst was 10th and had a valuable bonus point in his pocket. There were still 110 laps to go, however, and his racecar’s loose-handling condition persisted. Herbst ultimately went two laps down and finished 17th.
• The Pit Boss 250 will mark Herbst’s 54th career Xfinity Series start. His resume includes six top-fives and 24 top-10s. His best finish is second, earned twice – in February 2020 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, and July 2020 at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta. At just 22 years of age, Herbst has history on his side – seven of the past 10 road-course winners have been under the age of 25 and Stewart-Haas Racing’s No. 98 team has won two of the past three inaugural road-course races in the Xfinity Series – 2018 on the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway Roval and 2020 on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
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Riley Herbst, Driver of the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang |
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Does it feel special to be racing at COTA, a track that hosts such global racing series as Formula One and MotoGP? “I’ve never been to a Formula One track in my life and I think it’s cool that we’ll be racing on the same track as F1 and MotoGP. That kind of puts me in awe because those guys are at the top of the motorsports echelon worldwide, and to get to share the track that they race on is pretty cool. For the fans, it’s going to be way different than watching a Formula One car or a MotoGP bike. It’ll be really cool for the fans and we’ll put on a good show.”
COTA is a challenging and technical racetrack. What are your expectations for Saturday’s race? “I’m excited for COTA. The No. 98 Monster Energy team has a really good road-course package, so I’m excited to get down to Austin run around COTA, and see what we can do there.”
Practice and qualifying are back at COTA and the following weekend at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway. Talk about that and how it helps you. “I’m excited. We actually have some practice and qualifying these next two weekends. We’ve been without it for so long, and I’m ready to get a chance to get the car on track before we go green on Saturday afternoon. The simulator has been great to help the team learn what I need and to help me learn what I need out of the car, but nothing beats having actual practice at a new racetrack like this. Then, to be able to qualify for our starting position on Saturday, I’m excited to try and put the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang up front when we go green.”
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