Riley Herbst building momentum after top 10 at Chicagoland
NASCAR Cup Series sophomore Riley Herbst is showing heavy improvements from last year. After no top 10 finishes last year, the 27-year-old from Las Vegas has scored three top 10’s this year including two in the last three races.
Herbst never ran a Cup race at Chicagoland until the tracks return this past weekend. However, he made three ARCA starts at the track with a best finish of sixth, scored twice in 2018 and 2019. He also made a NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series start at the track in 2019 where he finished 10th.
After not taking laps at the track in seven years, Herbst led Cup practice with a time of 30.326 seconds and a speed of 178.065 miles per hour. His other three 23XI Racing teammates also practiced in the top 10.
Herbst qualified 18th and moved up through the field in stage one. He finished seventh in stage one. Herbst then ran consistently in the top 15 in stage two where he finished 13th. Then in stage three, Herbst ran as high as ninth on speed and stayed in the top 10 for almost the whole stage. He finished in 10th, for his third top 10 of the season.
Post Race Comments
After a day that saw Toyota place a brand-best seven cars inside the top ten, Herbst was the last of the group and finished tenth at Chicagoland.
Following the race, he said, “it was just fun to be back at Chicagoland its a fun racetrack, obviously the team had a lot of speed and it was good to capitalize and get some good points.”
With the momentum going into Atlanta this weekend, Herbst said, “hopefully we go win.”
Close Calls
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Back at Coronado, Herbst was also close to scoring his first Cup stage win in stage two but lost the lead to Ryan Preece with two to go. In addition, he almost got his first top five finish there. But made contact with A.J. Allmendinger, sending him back to eighth.
The Future
While he will not return to 23XI Racing in 2027, he could be in for a good year wherever he lands.
He has been rumored to join Legacy Motor Club in 2027 in their new third full-time car. Herbst sits 24th in points, a big improvement over a 35th place finish in the standings last year.
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