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Xfinity Breakdown: Riley Herbst Takes Indy Win After Tight 3-Car Battle

Boy, that was fun, wasn’t it?

Riley Herbst got by his Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Cole Custer approaching the white flag at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but as Herbst went below the No. 00, Aric Almirola went above and into the lead. Then, on the final corners, Herbst got to Almirola’s left rear and passed the No. 20, grabbing his first NASCAR Xfinity Series win of the season.

Custer also got by Almirola for second on the frontstretch. Shane van Gisbergen took fourth, and Sheldon Creed rounded out the top five.

Winners

Herbst broke a winless streak dating back to last fall at Las Vegas Motor Speedway where he earned his first career victory. He led nearly a third of the laps at Indy en route to the win, with Custer leading the majority of laps.

See also
Riley Herbst, Cole Custer, Aric Almirola Put on a Show at Indy

It’s SHR’s second-consecutive win after quite a drought for both drivers. While Custer and Herbst were doing well in points before their victories, a win was still elusive until this month. Now both drivers are secured in the playoffs, that is, as long as five new drivers don’t win the next several races.

Ford’s also had a good run as of late, with Ty Majeski winning the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park on Friday (July 19). The manufacturer also won five of the last nine NASCAR Cup Series races, with reigning champion Ryan Blaney taking home two of those wins.

Can Ford continue its winning ways after the Olympic break? We’ll have to wait and see.

Almirola had an impressive return to Xfinity after reportedly getting suspended for an altercation between him and fellow Toyota driver Bubba Wallace earlier in the year. It likely would’ve been even more impressive had he won the race, but still, he was in the running for it within the final two laps.

The Cup veteran showed that his time away didn’t slow him down on the way to his fourth top five of the year.

Almirola also somehow avoided contact with almost anything and anyone when he did two 360s with less than 35 laps in the race. He put on fresh tires after the spins, which helped his speed on the 2.5-mile rectangular oval.

Almirola’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Creed also had a good finish after an engine blew in practice, forcing him to start from the rear. While not ideal, better for it to happen well before the race rather than during the race (like what’s happened to Creed and several other Gibbs cars this year). Creed was in the top 10 for quite a bit of the race and even avoided the spinning No. 20, though at the time he lost several spots when he slowed down.

It’s Creed’s fifth top five in the last seven races, and although he wants a win, he has to feel good about the momentum from those various racetracks.

And how about SVG scoring a top five on a non-road course? The last time he did that was back at Atlanta Motor Speedway, a drafting oval. A fourth at Indy is a welcome surprise for van Gisbergen as the series heads to its two-week break.

Speaking of SVG, most of Kaulig Racing’s drivers had good runs, with Daniel Dye finishing seventh and AJ Allmendinger in eighth. Both also had some contact with other cars during the race. Allmendinger’s contact wasn’t really his fault, though; Sam Mayer came up and appeared to slightly rub the No. 16 and spun around on the first lap.

Dye, meanwhile, chased his car up the racetrack right into Anthony Alfredo (who I’ll talk about later), which in turn set up a big crash in the final 20 or so laps.

At least Dye has a good result to talk about this week.

Some other drivers worthy of shoutouts are Parker Kligerman, who hit the wall during qualifying and went from 38th to 12th, and Conor Daly, finishing 14th in his first Xfinity race of the season for Sam Hunt Racing. The latter was actually making headway there for a bit in the top 10 but pitted for two tires during a late caution. Still, a top 15 isn’t bad for a guy who’s only made three Xfinity starts in his career.

Losers

As mentioned earlier, trouble started on lap 1 when Austin Hill went to the bottom of the racetrack, Mayer slid up a lane and into Allmendinger. That set off a large accident involving Josh Berry, Sammy Smith, Jeb Burton, Chandler Smith and many more.

Honestly, Mayer’s reaction to the crash was what I initially thought about for Fuel for Thought. He basically told NBC Sports that the whole situation was stupid when cars are going three-wide on the first lap. While I understand his sentiment, I don’t feel he really was looking at where his own car was. Coming out of the turn, the No. 1 was very far away from the No. 21 of Hill. Perhaps he misjudged things?

Anyway, at least Mayer is locked into the playoffs, because since his win at Iowa Speedway, he’s either finished 10th or 19th until this race at Indy where he ended nearly dead last.

Who finished last? Berry, unfortunately. The last couple of races for him and AM Racing haven’t been the greatest, through no fault of his own. It will be interesting to see exactly who will pilot the No. 15 for the rest of the season, especially when Xfinity reaches its playoffs.

Remarkably, most of the cars that were involved in that melee continued, though with a lot of damage. One that did – Parker Retzlaff – ended up running into the back of Alfredo later on, which resulted in a poor finish. Also caught up in that accident was Josh Williams, who hit Retzlaff from behind and ended up hitting the outside wall hard.

The last seven races haven’t been the greatest for Williams; he’s only finished as high as 12th at the Chicago street course. Certainly not the summer stretch that the Kaulig driver was hoping for.

But perhaps one that didn’t need this result the most was Fast Pasta. The No. 5 Our Motorsports car has been fast much of the season, and today was no different. Alfredo started fifth at Indy, but the result dropped him further in the points, well below the playoff cut line.

Playoff Pit

With Herbst scoring a win, that leaves just four spots available for drivers to point their way in. Currently, Allmendinger is 102 points above the cut in ninth, while Creed is 69 points to the good. Kligerman is 11th in the playoff standings, plus 46 above the cut line.

The final spot is held by Ryan Sieg, who finished third and first in stages one and two, respectively. He currently has three points over Sammy Smith for the 12th playoff position. Then in 14th, Brandon Jones is 69 points below the cut line.

See also
Daniel Dye Finishes 7th at Indianapolis Despite Igniting Big Crash

Paint Scheme of the Week

Every week it seems that the Xfinity Series has some of the hottest schemes in NASCAR, and Indy was no different. From spiders to chickens, cars sported various designs and colors.

One of my favorites from this weekend was Alfredo’s No. 5 DUDE Wipes Mint Chill Chevrolet. Its black-and-turquoise scheme was fairly simple, yet a good combination that also highlights the sponsor. Additionally, the black number pops with the white outline around it.

Unfortunately, Alfredo’s car didn’t leave the track quite as pretty, as he was caught up in a big crash. He wound up 34th after running in the top 15 for much of the race.

Fuel for Thought

Did the caution come out when Alfredo was slow on the racetrack after hitting the wall? If not, why not?

Some may say that NASCAR might’ve thought that the No. 5 would’ve stayed up close to the wall. After all, it’s a wide track, and cars can go around ones in trouble.

But see, Alfredo had already hit the wall once thanks to Dye drifting up into him into the barrier. That was a whole separate corner before Alfredo hit the wall again. If Alfredo was off pace (and it looked like he might’ve been), why didn’t NASCAR throw out the yellow when he was already off pace for more than a turn?

This crash could’ve been prevented if the caution came out.

Instead, we have three junked racecars, which all endured several hard hits.

After he got out of the care center, Alfredo shared his perspective on what happened on the track.

“I just had literally no steering after I got put in the wall,” Alfredo said.

So if he had no steering, and NASCAR officials saw him hit the wall the first time and drift back into the wall the second time, the caution should’ve waved.

Now, you may think similarly to Williams, who said that Alfredo “was still rolling, I just figured he would have stayed up against the fence until everybody got past.” And I understand that, most of the time the cars that hit the fence stay there, especially if their spotter lets them know of oncoming traffic.

Still, we know what happens when we assume. I’ve learned to avoid assuming, for the most part anyway.

Could drivers have even slowed down enough if the caution had come out? Well, if not, they could have at least gone further down the track, especially the No. 28 of Kyle Sieg who was right in front of Retzlaff before darting around the No. 5.

It kind of reminds me of a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series accident involving Johnny Sauter and Trey Hutchens a few years ago at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Hutchens’ truck slowed down to a near-complete stop against the wall, and the caution didn’t come out until after Sauter clobbered Hutchens.

Alfredo’s accident was much different from that crash, as Alfredo was still rolling and the race was during the bright of the day. But my stance on both accidents remains the same: the yellow flag should have been displayed much earlier.

Where to Next

Xfinity drivers take some time off for the Olympic break before heading to Michigan International Speedway next month. Last year, John Hunter Nemechek took the victory on the 2-mile oval.

The Cabo Wabo 250 is scheduled to run on Aug. 17 at 3:30 p.m. ET and airs on USA Network.

Joy Tomlinson

Joy joined Frontstretch in 2019 as a NASCAR DraftKings writer, expanding to news and iRacing coverage in 2020. She's currently an assistant editor and involved with photos, social media and news editing. A California native, Joy was raised watching motorsports and started watching NASCAR extensively in 2001. She earned her B.A. degree in Liberal Studies at California State University Bakersfield in 2010.