FONTANA, Calif. -- Riley Herbst was charging hard for the lead from his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Harrison Burton, in the closing laps of the Production Alliance Group 300 on Saturday at Auto Club Speedway, but Herbst just ran out of time in the 150-lap race.
Normally, second place would sting a little for a driver, but Herbst was happy to see Burton win, especially because of the message it sent. "I’m really, really proud of Harrison," Herbst said. "Me and him have been working so hard this offseason. We've read it all -- everything -- that we aren't ready for it, that we can't do it in this series. Keep on talking because we're coming for more wins for sure." RELATED: Unofficial results | 'Big One' in Fontana | At-track galleryHerbst spent the bulk of the final 50 laps in the top six and took over second place for good after Chase Briscoe’s spin on Lap 126 but couldn’t get by Burton for the lead. The second-place finish was Herbst’s best finish to date in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in just his 13th series start and his second straight top-10 finish.
"Statistically, it might be my first top five, but I don’t feel like it is," Herbst said. "We’ve ran in the top five before, just had mistakes on my end or just racing incidents that took us out of these positions. It’s good to get it on paper. Good to get some momentum building with my team, but I’ve been telling people we're going to win some races this year and people are going to see." Of the three winners so far in the 2020 Xfinity Series season, Burton and Noah Gragson are first-time series winners. For his part, Burton would like to see a battle among his teammates -- Herbst and Brandon Jones (who led a race-high 73 laps) -- become the norm in 2020. "That’s our goal," Burton said. "We had meetings early this year and we were kind of scoping out our competition and we’re like, man, there’s no reason our 'Big 3' can’t be in the room we’re sitting in with our guys."If Riley gets a win and I finish second, I'm going to be excited for him. I know deep down he wanted to win and that’s how it should be. That’s how we want to race each other as a team."
Herbst, who turned 21 years old Monday, admitted he did not give any thought to roughing up Burton if it came to it, as he wanted to race his teammate cleanly. Now the Xfinity Series schedule turns to the LS Tractor 200 at Phoenix Raceway (March 7 at 4 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), where two Cup Series regulars are slated to be in the field."We’re going to see where we stack up against the best of the best in the sport with Brad (Keselowski) and Kyle (Busch)," Herbst said, "so I’m excited for it."