LEBANON, Tenn. – Stewart-Haas Racing’s crew chief swap for Riley Herbst and the No. 98 team immediately paid dividends with a runner-up finish in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series showdown at Nashville Superspeedway.
Herbst ran inside the top 10 all afternoon, with a late strategy call putting his Monster Energy Ford on the front row for the final restart in NASCAR Overtime. He finished seventh in Stage 1 and improved to fifth in Stage 2, setting him up for a late charge after a slew of cautions re-racked the field in the closing laps.
Though he finished one spot short of his elusive first win in the series, the 24-year-old driver was proud of the entire effort.
“I don’t think anything there was given to me,” Herbst said. “It was all earned. It was hot, it was slick. Did all the small things right, but I wish I could have gotten a little better restart there at the end. The bottom just restarts a little better than the top.
“After the last seven weeks, it’s good to get back in the top five and good to see us going back in the right direction.”
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After opening the 2023 season with an impressive six consecutive top-10 finishes, including a season-best fourth at Phoenix Raceway, Herbst faded down the standings with six finishes outside the top 20 in the following nine contests.
“I don’t know if it’s been bad luck,” Herbst said. “It’s just been racing. The last three weeks have been self-inflicted wounds of my own doing, but we knew we had this pace. I mean, Cole (Custer) has been fast, we’ve been fast, Zane (Smith) was fast today, so we knew we could do it.”
But heading into a difficult summer stretch of the regular season, the team needed a breath of fresh air. Enter Davin Restivo.
Restivo had been with the SHR organization, serving as a lead engineer for the No. 10 Cup Series entry and driver Aric Almirola when he got the call to take charge of the Xfinity Series pit box. He was also a key component in Custer’s dominant 2019 Xfinity Series season.
It was a big shift for Herbst but a welcome one.
“I walked in the shop Monday morning, and he said, ‘Hi, I’m Davin,'” Herbst explained. “I said, ‘Hey, I’m Riley,’ and he said, ‘We’re gonna take a little bit to get our communication right, but I promise I’ll work extremely hard and give you fast race cars.'”
“And obviously, he did that this weekend.”
In their first race together, less than a week after joining forces, the pairing rallied for the best finish of the season for the No. 98 team. And it ties his best-ever finish in the Xfinity Series, achieved twice in 2020 at Auto Club Speedway and Kentucky Speedway.
Herbst looked re-energized and focused on making the most of a championship chase still within reach.
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Entering Saturday, Herbst was 11th (one place above the 12-driver elimination line) in the projected playoff outlook. The strong finish, coupled with 10 stage points, moved him up one position to 10th.
Execution and strategy at the end of the race put them in a prime position to win, which Herbst is certain they can do more regularly.
“We just need to do what we did right there,” Herbst said. “Do all the small things right and continue to drive our race car and race our race and keep our head down.”
Herbst and the Xfinity Series head north to Illinois on July 1 for The Loop 121 on the Chicago Street Course (5 p.m. ET, USA Network, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).