Stewart Haas Racing’s Riley Herbst has won the Xfinity Series championship race in Phoenix. While he wasn’t in the championship battle, this still is a personal gain as it’s his 3rd win in his five full seasons so far in the Series. And not just for Herbst, but it is also a great farewell for the Stewart-Haas Racing team, who are shutting operations post-2024. And while 2023 Xfinity Series Champion Cole Custer steals all the thunder in the SHR team, Herbst often has to take the backseat.

But at Phoenix Herbst was the star of SHR as Custer ended his season in P2 after Justin Allgaier bested him to win the 2024 championship. Herbst, not getting enough limelight, clearly feels dejected! This is evident from his opening statement in the post-race press conference. He said, “How do you like that (expletive), huh?” The #98’s frustration is directed towards journalists who often ridicule his wins as a fluke. But according to him, twice can be a fluke, what about this third time? In the media interaction, he was curious to know what his detractors had to say!

Riley Herbst takes a sarcastic jibe at the media personnel in Phoenix

There is no denying that Herbst has shown year-on-year progress since his debut full season in 2020 for Joe Gibbs. So far in the Xfinity Series, Riley Herbst has made 174 race starts, winning thrice, finishing 33 times in the top 5 and 85 times in the top 10. The 25-year-old has had an average finish of 15.3 so far in his Xfinity career, which is not mediocre at all. Still, the Las Vegas native feels he doesn’t get the credit he deserves for his runs and wins.

Releasing his pent-up frustration in the post-race interview, he said, “People (say) the first win was a fluke; didn’t count. The second win didn’t count because it was a weird package and I just moved him. So I’m curious to see what they’ll say about this one, how they’ll discredit me, everybody in the media.” But if we look at his three wins, neither one was a fluke. Rather, they showed promise in the youngster. His first win came at his home track in Las Vegas last year when he led 103 out of the 201 laps and took the checkered flag by a whopping 14.9 seconds over John Hunter Nemechek in P2.

Even his second win, this year on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, was a display of his race prowess when he made a last-lap pass on JGR’s Aric Almirola. Similarly, in the Phoenix race, Herbst started in P3, won both stages, And in the final lap he chased down Allgaier to take the win. Yet he feels it won’t be enough for his critics. “I’m very, very happy that late-race caution come out so I had to race them on the restart, and I showed that I could pass them on the restarts, and if they wanted to move me, I could move them back. I lost the lead on pit road, still came back, still took the lead and won the race. Excited to see what Twitter has to say,” he added. When asked who are these media people, Herbst refused to name anyone, “They all know where they are. I’ve heard the podcasts. I’ve seen the comments. I’ve seen Twitter. I’ve seen it all. They know who it is. I know who it is.”

Riley Herbst went on a non-stop rant at the press conference, as he indirectly called out his haters. “I don’t know how people can discredit me now. One win, I get it. One-win wonder. A second win, sure they can still do that. But now I’m matching people’s win totals. I’m matching people’s win totals in the Cup Series that were in the Truck and Xfinity Series and they’re doing really good on Sundays. I’m just curious to see what they’ll say.” 

While trolling can be difficult to handle for some, it acts as fuel for Riley Herbst. He credited them to his year-on-year progress in the Series. Herbst, on this note, said, “I’m not going to respond to them, but it’s just interesting to see how it progresses after each win. But it fuels me. I’m excited. I’m so much better than last week. I’m so much better than I was last year, four years ago, 2020 when I hopped into the 18 car not knowing nearly anything.”

However, despite his progress, his future in NASCAR currently hangs in the balance, as he does not have a ride for 2025.

Riley Herbst on his 2025 plans?

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SHR fields two teams in the Xfinity Series; while Cole Custer is going to the new Haas Factory team in the Cup Series next year, Riley Herbst is unsure where he’ll end up. While SHR is shutting down, the Haas Factory team will continue a two-driver operation in the Xfinity. However, they have fielded Sheldon Creed and Sam Mayer to pilot their cars in the next season.

In the press conference, Herbst opened up about his future plans, He said, “I don’t know. I’m excited. I’m nervous. I don’t know what’s going to happen.” Perhaps some good news would come in the postseason, but as of now, no team is lining up to take him on board. And like Herbst had previously said, for the moment he’s made peace with it. “It’s still up in the air. I was worried about it. I was losing sleep about it, and then I kind of just honestly stopped worrying about it,” He had said earlier.

Probably the only certain future plans are celebrating this win. Which is made extra special for the 300 employees of the team! Herbst credited his win to them, “It’s for the 300 plus employees that it was an emotional week last week. There was a lot of crying people in that race shop. It’s been home to a lot of good people for a long time, including myself. It was validating to win for myself, to win for Davin and everybody on the 98 team, but all the men and women at the shop…Those guys mean the most to us, and this win is just as much theirs as it is mine. I’m excited for all of them and to go out on top.”

What did you think of Herbst’s wins? Do you think he shows promise? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.