FORT WORTH, Texas — Riley Herbst was tired as could be when he was walking off the pit road at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday, May 3. It had been a long-fought day over the course of 400 miles that ended with him just shy of a top-10 finish. Despite it still being his best finish on a non-drafting oval, he wasn’t too happy.
But that changed in a moment when team owner and NBA legend Michael Jordan came over to embrace him on a job well done.
“I mean, obviously, the support that 23XI [Racing] has shown me has never wavered over the last year and a half,” Herbst told Frontstretch. “And we’re working really, really hard, and today it showed for quite a bit.”
It has not been an easy year-and-a-half for the Las Vegas native since he joined the 23XI Racing organization as the driver for its third car. While both of his teammates Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick have earned a total of six combined wins between them, Herbst has had to settle for a total of one single top-10 finish.
In addition, 23XI fields an additional fourth car part-time driven by Corey Heim, who is seen as one of the most promising prospects in the sport after he won a whopping 11 races and the championship in last year’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season. With seemingly no plans to add a fourth charter, the rumors have been loud in favor of Heim taking Herbst’s seat at the end of the year.
Suffice it to say, the pressure has been on the 27-year-old to improve and to improve fast.
On Sunday, he did, though it took a little bit to get up to speed.
“We had a horrible green flag pit stop in the first stage and put us a lap down, and so we battled back from that all day,” Herbst recalled. “I think we were dead last at one point because of our green flag pit stop in the first stage.”
After a collage of crashes and caution flags shook up the field running order and strategies, however, Herbst found himself in the top 10. For a time, it felt like strategy that eventually would see the No. 35 eventually back outside the top spots as the race went on.
But that never happened. In fact, Herbst even carried himself to earn stage points in stage two when he finished the segment in eighth. Even better, when the final stage began, he stayed there.
“We ran inside the top six all day, and I thought we had a top five car,” Herbst said. “It’s just nice that we know we can rebound.”
After the race’s final green flag pit stops, the No. 35 Toyota had held position and was running seventh and on pace to put together not only his first career top 10 on a non-drafting track, but his best NASCAR Cup Series result ever. With 12 laps to go, it was proving to be a career day for Herbst and one that he desperately needed.
Then, luck finally ran out. Ironically, it was when 23XI teammate Heim had spun around and crashed that put out the event’s final caution flag. Herbst had to make a decision to either pit or stay out. Crew chief Davin Restivo chose the latter, and Herbst gained positions and restarted fifth.
Alas, Herbst didn’t stay there. In the five laps remaining when the final green flag waved, the No. 35 got passed by multiple cars with nearly 40-lap fresher tires. The young Toyota driver could only look on as he fell to 11th where he finished.
Despite the result, Herbst still agrees with Restivo’s call.
“I mean, I think that’s the right decision,” Herbst said. “I just wasn’t good enough. They’re really, really good at what they do, and I need to go back and learn and understand how I can get better. [We] should have ran in the top five, and I just wasn’t good enough on the last restart.”
While it’s a personal best on the smaller ovals, Herbst wasn’t very surprised at the speed, and for good reason. Over the course of the year, the No. 35 has been contending decently among the field but seems to find bad fortune.
At Kansas Speedway, he placed 14th after running in the top 15 for most of the day. At Bristol Motor Speedway, he qualified an impressive fourth place — the best of his whole Cup career.
“I don’t know if you guys pay attention, but we had a solid day at Darlington [Raceway] until the No. 88 wrecked us,” Herbst said. “We had a solid day at the Bristol until me and Kyle [Busch] got into it, and we had a really solid day at Kansas, too, so I feel like the speed on the 35 has been improving.”
And Texas, despite the result, was further proof of that.
Dalton Hopkins began writing for Frontstretch in April 2021. Currently, he is the lead writer for the weekly Thinkin' Out Loud column, co-host of the Frontstretch Happy Hour podcast, and one of our lead reporters. Beforehand, he wrote for IMSA shortly after graduating from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2019. Simultaneously, he also serves as a Captain in the US Army.
Follow Dalton on Twitter @PitLaneCPT