No fluke: Riley Herbst wins Xfinity season finale at Phoenix
AVONDALE, Ariz. — Riley Herbst proved detractors wrong again Saturday night at Phoenix Raceway, claiming his third career win in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
Herbst made a final-corner pass on Justin Allgaier and took home his second checkered flag of the 2024 season. He won both stages and led seven times for 167 of 213 laps in doing so.
This season, Herbst has now won a career-high amount of races for a single season — two wins all in the last 14 races of the season.
Herbst ended the season with confidence in the face of uncertainty and detractors.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen [in 2025],” he said. “A lot of people say X driver is the future of the sport and I have the same number wins as him. I’m matching people’s Xfinity wins total that are in the Cup Series. It fuels me, I’m excited. I’m so much better than I was before.”
Saturday night was also the final hurrah for Stewart-Haas Racing, a team that he has broken out with since joining in 2021. He progressed in his average finish in 2022 (13.0 in 2022 vs. 17.1 in 2021) and earned his first win last October at Las Vegas Motor Speedway after missing the playoffs.
Herbst said he had the 300 employees of SHR, who also face an uncertain future, on his mind Saturday night.
“It was an emotional week. Last week, there was a lot of crying people in the race shop that’s been home to a lot of good people for a long time, including myself. It was validating to win for myself, to win for Davin [Restivo, crew chief] but all the men and woman at the shop who don’t get the notoriety. They work 9-to-5 every single day of the week, even the off-season. Those guys mean the most to us and this win is just as much theirs as it is mine,” Herbst said.
TOP-10 FINISHERS (LAP 213): Herbst, Justin Allgaier, Aric Almirola, Connor Zilisch, Chandler Smith, Jesse Love, Sheldon Creed, Cole Custer, A.J. Allmendinger, Austin Hill
Parker Kligerman finished 14th in his final full-time start in his NASCAR career.
NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship Race Results and Points
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Jonathan Fjeld View All
Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.
A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.
Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick's final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen's stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers' stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.
Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com