COLE CUSTER | RILEY HERBST
Martinsville NASCAR Xfinity Series Advance
NASCAR Xfinity Series Overview
- Event: Call811.com Before You Dig. 250 (Round 8 of 33)
- Date: Saturday, April 15
- Location: Martinsville (Va.) Speedway
- Layout: .526-mile oval
- Time/TV/Radio: 7:30 p.m. EDT on FS1/MRN/SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Cole Custer Notes of Interest
- Cole Custer couldn’t be happier to return to short-track racing after a one-week hiatus as the NASCAR Xfinity Series heads to the .526-mile Martinsville (Va.) Speedway paperclip-shaped oval for Saturday night’s Call811.com Before you Dig. 250. Custer scored his first top-five of the season two weekends ago on the .75-mile Richmond (Va.) Raceway oval and is ready for another strong outing under the lights at Martinsville. The No. 00 Haas Automation driver has been fast all season, but bad luck has gotten in the way of potential top finishes. His fifth-place run at Richmond elevated Custer to 10th in the driver standings, 81 points out of first, as he heads into his first career Xfinity Series career start at Martinsville with his eyes focused on its prestigious grandfather clock trophy.
- Custer does have a dozen previous race outings at Martinsville under his belt – six apiece in the NASCAR Cup Series and Truck Series. In the Cup Series, the 25-year-old from Ladera Ranch, California, has a best Martinsville finish of 13th in October 2020, and his most recent outing last October resulted in a 14th-place finish. Best of Custer’s six Truck Series races at Martinsville from 2014 through 2016 was his fourth-place finish from the pole after leading a race-high 96 of 200 laps in the October 2015 race. That was behind the wheel of the No. 00 JR Motorsports entry, which he also drove to a seventh-place finish from the third starting position in the October 2016 race, in which he led 17 laps.
- Custer’s overall short-track history proves it is his strong suit. Included in his 13 top-10 finishes in 20 career short-track starts in the Xfinity Series was a victory at Richmond in April 2019 during his previous fulltime season in the series. He’s led a total of 365 laps in those 20 short-track starts.
Riley Herbst Notes of Interest
- Riley Herbst can’t wait to get back on track for what has been shaping up to be a career-best season during Saturday night’s Call811.com Before you Dig. 250. His streak of top-10s to start the 2023 Xfinity Series campaign – six in the first six races – came to an abrupt end when he was involved in an accident that took him out of contention two weekends ago at Richmond (Va.) Raceway. The driver of the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) arrives at Martinsville second in the driver standings, 12 points behind leader Austin Hill, after collecting 66 valuable stage points in the opening seven races, during which he’s led 38 laps. He’s looking to pick up where he left off at Martinsville in his most recent outing there last October, which resulted in a third-place finish.
- Saturday’s Call811.com Before you Dig. 250 will mark Herbst’s sixth at Martinsville in the Xfinity Series. Four of his five previous starts there resulted in top-10 finishes. Prior to last October’s third-place run, in which he fought valiantly for the win over multiple late-race restarts, he posted a pair of sixth-place finishes at the .526-mile paperclip-shaped oval – in October 2020 and April 2022, respectively.
- Herbst has come to excel on the short tracks in the Xfinity Series, as was evident last season. In addition to his sixth- and third-place finishes at Martinsville in the spring and fall races, respectively, he added a fifth-place finish in the April race at Richmond and a fifth-place finish at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway in September. Saturday night’s race at Martinsville will mark Herbst’s 17th on a short track in the Xfinity Series. His first career short-track start resulted in a sixth-place finish in June 2018 at Iowa Speedway in Newton. Since then, Herbst has added 11 top-10s, including in his past three races at Martinsville.
Cole Custer, Driver of the No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang
Martinsville is such a polarizing track for drivers – some love it and some hate it. Where do you land on that scale?
“I really like Martinsville. Ever since I first went there in the Truck Series, I’ve always loved going there. It’s definitely a place that you will love when everything is going well and hate when it all starts going bad – mostly because when it’s bad, it’s really bad. Stewart-Haas Racing has had solid runs there in the Xfinity Series in the past, so hopefully we can learn from that and show up ready to win. It would mean a ton to win a Martinsville grandfather clock. I’ve come really close there a few times in the Truck Series, and we had a few good runs in the Cup Series. That’s a trophy that everyone wants to win, and Martinsville is a place where everyone wants to win, so you always go there wanting to get that clock.”
After scoring a top-five finish prior to the Xfinity Series off weekend on the .75-mile oval of Richmond Raceway, what are your expectations heading into this Saturday’s race?
“We hope to keep building on what we did at Richmond. Martinsville is a place where tempers can flare, though, and you have to be ready for that. Sometimes you just have to get going, so either you have to move people out of the way if they’re holding you up, or you get moved. It’s a place where, as the laps start winding down, you’re going to get aggression from the drivers trying to win that clock. Hopefully we’ll come out on top and continue to turn our luck around. We’ve had the speed, so hopefully we can park our No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang in victory lane on Saturday night.”
Riley Herbst, Driver of the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang
Richmond didn’t have the ending that you wanted, but there were a ton of positives that came out of it. Talk about that race and what you expect heading into another short-track race at Martinsville.
“Yeah, Richmond didn’t end the way we wanted it to, but there are a ton of positive things that we can take away. We got into a bad situation there, but prior to that we were leading laps, running up front and contending for the win. It proved that we can do that each and every week. I’m excited to head back to Martinsville now and try to take that same mentality from Richmond and from last October’s race. Everyone wants to bring home a grandfather clock, everyone wants to be the best at Martinsville. Sometimes to be the best, though, you have to do some beating and banging, and we’ve seen feelings get hurt. Either way, Martinsville is always a fun race.”
It was a season of growth for you in 2022, but it feels like you’re coming into your own in 2023. You’re leading laps, contending for wins, and consistently a top-five car. How has the journey been to get you to this point mentally?
“We’ve come a long way from that first season, and I’ve come a long way as a driver. It took me a while to understand that I’m Riley Herbst. I’m not Cole Custer, I’m not Chase Briscoe. I’m a completely different driver with a different style. Once I felt like I got that settled and would be able to be myself, have fun and try to drive the racecar the way I want to drive the race car, things started to turn around. I have so much confidence in Richard (Boswell, crew chief) and everybody on the No. 98 team. I know that they have confidence in me, and that’s what matters.”
