Monster Energy Racing: Riley Herbst Indianapolis Road Course NXS Advance

Riley Herbst Notes of Interest

•  Riley Herbst and the No. 98 Monster Energy team are heading to their second consecutive road-course race Saturday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. After a 13th-place finish last Saturday on the road course at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International, Herbst plans to take what he learned at The Glen and apply it to this enhanced race weekend where Herbst and his Xfinity Series brethren will practice and qualify before competing in the 62-lap race. Saturday’s Indianapolis 150 at the Brickyard marks the series’ sixth road-course race of 2021. Herbst’s best finish on a road course this season is seventh, earned July 3 at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.

•  With six races remaining in the Xfinity Series’ regular season before the NASCAR Playoffs begin Sept. 25 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Herbst is just one spot shy of the top-12 cutoff to make the seven-race playoffs. Herbst enters Indianapolis 13th in the championship standings, 30 points behind 12th-place Michael Annett. A win would give Herbst a playoff berth, but the 22-year-old racer from Las Vegas can also point his way into the top-12 with a string of strong finishes between Indianapolis and the playoff cutoff race Sept. 17 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. Herbst has already made up 24 points in the last two races.

•  Saturday’s race will mark Herbst’s 64th career Xfinity Series start and his second at Indianapolis. He’s hunting for his first Xfinity Series victory and he’s driving for the team that won last year’s race at Indianapolis. With Chase Briscoe behind the wheel in 2020, the No. 98 team of Stewart-Haas Racing scored the win in dramatic fashion. Briscoe powered past second-place Austin Cindric and leader AJ Allmendinger on the penultimate lap to pull out a 1.717-second margin of victory over runner-up Justin Haley.

•  Herbst has made nine road-course starts in the Xfinity Series, scoring two top-10s and four top-15s. His best finish is seventh, earned twice – Aug. 15, 2020 on the road course at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway and four races ago at Road America.

Riley Herbst, Driver of the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang

You made your first career NASCAR Xfinity Series start on a road course last year at Indianapolis. How much have you learned about road-course racing since then?

“I feel like I’ve definitely learned a lot since last year at Indy. Road courses are a different animal and you have to learn over time. Without practice at most of my road-course starts, it’s difficult to learn before the green flag, but I’ve made progress. The No. 98 Monster Energy team has brought a great road-course package this season and we’ve been fast at every race. We just have to minimize the mistakes and stay out of trouble this weekend.”

This is your second road-course race in as many weeks. What did you learn at Watkins Glen last Saturday that you can apply at Indianapolis?

“There’s a lot that we can transfer over to this weekend. We were easily a top-10 car, but had to race our way from the back to the front on the final stage. Our Monster Energy Ford Mustang is fast and I think we showed that by passing so many cars in the final laps of the race. As long as we do what we have to do all weekend, we can run up front on Saturday.

You’re heading into a weekend where you get to practice and qualify before the race on Saturday. How valuable is that additional track time?

“I’m excited to have practice and qualifying at Indy. Not having those sessions has become the norm since the pandemic hit last year, so you really take advantage of them when you have them. There’s a lot you can learn as a driver and as a team. We’ve been fast in a majority of our practices and qualifying sessions this season, so we’re hoping to keep that momentum going.”

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