Stewart-Haas Racing took to social media to announce that Riley Herbst will be retaining his role as a full-time NASCAR Xfinity Series competitor for the organization and in the No. 98 Ford Mustang sponsored by Monster Energy for the upcoming racing season.
The 23-year-old Herbst from Las Vegas, Nevada, is coming off his second full-time campaign with SHR and third overall in the Xfinity circuit, where he achieved a pole at Nashville Superspeedway in June, a career-high eight top-five results and 20 top-10 results, 12 laps led and a career-best average-finishing result of 13.0 throughout the 33-race schedule. He also qualified for the 2022 Xfinity Series Playoffs, where he was eliminated from title contention following the Round of 12 before he went on to finish in a career-best 10th place in the final championship standings.
After achieving his first ARCA Menards Series career victory at Pocono Raceway in 2017 while competing for Joe Gibbs Racing, Herbst made his Xfinity Series debut during the following season at Iowa Speedway, where he piloted JGR’s No. 18 Toyota Camry to a sixth-place result. He then campaigned in nine Xfinity events in 2019, where he recorded three top-10 results, before competing on a full-time basis in JGR’s No. 18 Toyota Supra for the 2020 Xfinity season. He proceeded to finish 12th in the final standings, where he also recorded two runner-up results, 17 top-10 results, an average-finishing result of 16.0 and made the Xfinity Playoffs.
Herbst moved to Stewart-Haas Racing to drive the No. 98 Ford Mustang in 2021. He concluded the season with an 11th-place result in the final standings after recording his first career pole at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May along with a total of five top-five results, 13 top-10 results, a career-high 57 laps led, an average-finishing result of 17.1 and a second consecutive berth to the Xfinity Playoffs.
Through a total of 109 career starts in the Xfinity circuit, Herbst has achieved two poles, 17 top-five results, 54 top-10 results, 85 laps led and an average-finishing result of 15.4 as he continues to pursue his first victory across NASCAR’s top three national touring series.
With his plans for next season set, Herbst will return to action at Daytona International Speedway on February 18, which will mark the start of the 2023 Xfinity Series season. The event’s coverage is scheduled to occur at 5 p.m. ET on FS1.
