Herbst Gives SHR Xfinity Program A Winning Sendoff

Riley Herbst celebrates his NASCAR Xfinity Series win Saturday night at Phoenix Raceway. (HHP/David Graham photo)

AVONDALE, Ariz. – With a thoroughly dominant effort, capped by a last-lap pass, Riley Herbst gave Stewart-Haas Racing a winning sendoff and made sure that not all of the spotlight was on the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship battle Saturday night at Phoenix Raceway.

Herbst led seven times for 167 of 213 laps in the Xfinity Series championship race, sweeping the stages and going on to collect the trophy at the one-mile desert oval.

It marked his third career win and second of the season, following his July win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway that put the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang team into the postseason.

But the final box score at Phoenix didn’t tell the entire tale.

Herbst was leading with three laps left in regulation when a spin by Leland Honeyman Jr. in turn four drew the sixth of seven caution flags in the race and set up overtime to decide both the winner and the series champion.

At that point, the lead-lap runners came down pit road for fresher tires in their final attempts to control their own destinies, with title contender Austin Hill taking two tires – seven-lap scuffs – to gain the lead and the best track position. Herbst exited pit lane third and lined up there for the first overtime restart.

Hill launched off the outside lane when the green flag waved, doing everything he could to keep fellow championship rival Cole Custer behind him going into turn one.

He got sideways, however, checking up Custer behind him and allowing Jesse Love and Allgaier to shoot the middle and take over the top two spots before Parker Retzlaff’s crash in turn two led to a second overtime attempt.

Herbst started from the outside of the second row for the race’s final restart, but it was Allgaier who surged off the bottom, nearly getting clear outright at the exit of the dogleg before coming up into the left-front fender of Love – which then squeezed Herbst briefly into the outside wall as well.

Everyone kept going at speed, though, with Allgaier leading down the backstretch and Herbst getting to second by the time the white flag waved.

From there, Herbst stalked Allgaier for the first half of the final lap before charging to the inside of the JR Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro in turn three, taking the lead in the final corner and getting back to the checkered flag first by .247 seconds over Allgaier.

It was a fitting end to Stewart-Haas Racing’s tenure in the Xfinity Series and marked the team’s 26th victory in 336 series starts dating back to 2017.

“It has been a really tough week this past week at the shop, and we’ve had a lot of really emotional people. This place has been home for so many people for a long time, including myself, and it has built me into who I am the last four years,” said Herbst. “I’m so happy we could finish things off in victory lane, and I’m grateful to every man and woman at Stewart-Haas Racing. They gave me a really fast car today and we capitalized on it.”

Herbst and Allgaier had contact just before the end of the second stage that cut a tire on Allgaier’s car and nearly derailed both drivers’ races. After that, Herbst was even more determined not to let a victory slip away from him.

“I can’t thank Monster Energy enough and everyone on the 98 team. They deserve to win, and we gave them what they deserved tonight,” he continued. “That is a championship caliber team and crew chief in Davin [Restivo]. I wish we could have cleaned some stuff up over the summer, but I am proud of these guys. I knew we were going to have a fast race car. These guys have been working on this Phoenix car as if we were in the playoffs.

“I knew we were going to be really fast, and we were all race long. That was our race and I wanted to take it at the end.”

Though he didn’t advance to the Championship 4, Herbst ended the year seventh in the point standings – a career-best for the 25-year-old Las Vegas native in his fifth full-time season in the Xfinity Series.

He attributed his growth over that time to the lessons he’s learned from the team at Stewart-Haas, led by co-owner Tony Stewart and longtime competition director Greg Zipadelli.

“I’ve said it multiple times. I knew I could be here. I knew I could do this. Everything in life is just hard work and I definitely didn’t start out how I wanted to be,” reflected Herbst, who doesn’t have his future plans set at this point. “It was embarrassing there for a few years and I was just really, really struggling, but I got around really good people. Tony Stewart, Richard Boswell, Davin Restivo, and Kevin Harvick told me to get to work and they told me what I needed to work on, and we did that.

“Now, we’re starting to see the fruits of our labor. I just hate we can’t continue it with this specific group.”

Allgaier hung on for second and claimed the Xfinity Series championship for the first time in his career.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Aric Almirola, JR Motorsports’ Connor Zilisch, and a second Joe Gibbs Racing car driven by Chandler Smith closed the top five in the race.

Love faded to sixth after leading at the start of the final overtime, followed by Sheldon Creed and Herbst’s SHR teammate Cole Custer, who came up one spot short of defending his championship from a year ago.

The other two Championship 4 drivers – A.J. Allmendinger and Austin Hill – closed out the top 10.

Seven cautions slowed the pace for 53 laps, with the race completed in two hours, 24 minutes, and 20 seconds at an average speed of 88.545 mph.

The 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series season kicks off Feb. 15 at Daytona (Fla.) Int’l Speedway with the United Rentals 300, live on The CW, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. An official start time for the season opener will be set during the offseason.