Herbst Tops A Barnburner To Win At The Brickyard

INDIANAPOLIS – In a thrilling dash to the finish at historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Riley Herbst passed both Aric Almirola and his Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Cole Custer on the final lap to win Saturday’s Pennzoil 250 at the Brickyard.

The 25-year-old Las Vegas native had the fastest car late in the race, but had to fight through a wild closing sequence that featured different leaders on each of the final three laps.

Custer kicked off the proceedings, taking the top spot on a restart with 11 laps left after rolling around the outside of Herbst off of turn two.

From there, Custer opened up a lead of more than a second as Almirola and Herbst battled for the runner-up spot, with Herbst finally clearing the Joe Gibbs Racing driver in the short chute with nine laps left after nudging Almirola up the track exiting turn one.

Despite the deficit, Herbst slowly and methodically closed the gap to his teammate, using the draft to get closer and closer inside of five to go and reaching Custer’s rear bumper on lap 98.

Though Custer led at the Yard of Bricks that lap, Herbst got to his inside in turns three and four coming to the white flag, creating enough of a draft that Almirola was able to charge forward from third and move to the far outside – leading by a bumper at the flagstand in a three-wide battle.

Almirola escaped with the lead in turn one, but Herbst fell quickly into second and was able to stay in Almirola’s wake down the backstretch, set up to pounce on the far end of the racetrack.

Herbst got a run in turn three and got a fender inside Almirola, going side-by-side through the final short chute before completing the winning pass in turn four.

With Custer and Almirola scrapping for second behind him, Herbst raced unchallenged down the front straight to the checkered flag for his second career NASCAR Xfinity Series win and first of the season.

It locks Herbst into the playoff field and means that both Stewart-Haas Racing teams will contend for an Xfinity Series championship this fall.

“We’ve had speed all year, and I felt like we could win [all day], but I just messed up on the restarts a little bit and had to rally from that,” said Herbst after a celebratory fence climb. “It was a good fight. I thought I had Cole cleared and then he slid … three [wide] with the 20 [Almirola] and I thought it was going to be tough.

“I just continued to work, though, and we got it done in the end.”

Herbst’s first Xfinity Series victory came nine months ago at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway, his home track.

For his next win to come at a place as revered as Indianapolis is something Herbst said “leaves me a bit speechless.”

“This is Indianapolis. This is the most famous racetrack in the world,” he noted. “It is an honor just to walk in this place, let alone win.”

Saturday’s performance puts an end to a solid, but trying first half of the season for Herbst, especially with the impending restructuring of Stewart-Haas Racing into Haas Factory Team on the horizon next year.

Though Herbst’s 2025 plans have yet to be solidified, he credited his No. 98 Monster Energy Ford team for continuing to believe in him and fighting to perform each week.

“It has been a pretty tough week on me, mentally, to be honest,” Herbst admitted. “I am proud of these guys and everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing. Obviously, the news of us shutting down … these guys could have given up on me [and] gone to different teams, but they stuck behind me.

“That is back-to-back wins now for Stewart-Haas Racing and we’re not done yet.”

After going winless for the first 18 Xfinity Series races of the year, Ford has now won in back-to-back starts. Ford drivers also swept the stage wins Saturday, with Herbst topping stage one and Ryan Sieg taking stage two.

Custer edged out Almirola at the Yard of Bricks to finish second, a reversal of SHR’s front row sweep to start the day, when the California native earned the pole over Herbst.

Though Custer was pleased to continue his momentum of late, he was equally disappointed at not coming home with a trophy after leading a race-high 47 laps.

“I mean, you could see us beating doors down the front stretch. You are going to do everything it takes to try and win [at] Indy,” said Custer. “I was doing everything I could to get this thing to turn. I just needed one less lap.

“I felt like it was kind of a disadvantage to lead all day, honestly,” he added.” If you were in second, it would actually make your car looser, which would save your tires throughout a run. If you were leading, you would just get so tight after 15 laps. But what an awesome day for SHR to have two cars at the front all day. We qualified one-two and finished one-two … so I hope we keep this rolling.”

Almirola crossed third after leading at the white flag, with New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen notching his best finish on an oval in fourth and Sheldon Creed closing the top five.

Sixth through 10th were Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill, Kaulig Racing teammates Daniel Dye and A.J. Allmendinger, and the JR Motorsports duo of Justin Allgaier and Carson Kvapil.

Two major accidents marred the proceedings, with a 12-car skirmish in turn three taking place before a full lap was ever completed.

Started after Allmendinger came down into the side of Sam Mayer’s Chevrolet, causing Mayer to spin from a top-five starting spot, the crash ended the day for Mayer and Josh Berry and left Jesse Love, Jeb Burton, and others with heavy damage.

The melee which brought out the last of seven caution flags came with 17 laps left, when Anthony Alfredo slowed exiting turn two after being squeezed into the wall in the short chute by Daniel Dye.

Parker Retzlaff was drafting behind another car at the time and could not move to avoid Alfredo’s Chevrolet, slamming into the back of the No. 5 at nearly 160 mph and lifting all four of Alfredo’s tires off the ground briefly. Josh Williams then crashed into Retzlaff’s bumper in the ensuing chain reaction.

Fortunately, all three drivers climbed from their destroyed race cars and were later checked and released from the IU Health Infield Care Center.

NASCAR Xfinity Series teams will take three weeks off as part of the Olympic break before returning to action Saturday, Aug. 17 at Michigan Int’l Speedway, where John Hunter Nemechek won last year’s race.