STEWART-HAAS RACING
NASCAR Xfinity Series: Tennessee Lottery 250
Date: June 24, 2023
Event: Tennessee Lottery 250 (Round 15 of 33)
Series: NASCAR Xfinity Series
Location: Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway (1.33-mile oval)
Format: 188 laps, broken into three stages (45 laps/45 laps/98 laps)
Note: Race extended eight laps past its scheduled 188-lap distance due to a green-white-checkered finish.
Race Winner: AJ Allmendinger of Kaulig Racing (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Winner: Ty Gibbs of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)
Stage 2 Winner: Chandler Smith of Kaulig Racing (Chevrolet)
SHR Race Finish:
● Riley Herbst (Started 5th / Finished 2nd, completed 196 of 196 laps)
● Cole Custer (Started 1st / Finished 9th, completed 196 of 196 laps)
SHR Points:
● Cole Custer (4th with 534 points, 51 out of first)
● Riley Herbst (9th with 416 points, 169 out of first)
SHR Notes:
● Herbst earned his third top-five of the season and his second straight top-five in three career NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at Nashville.
● Herbst has never finished outside the top-10 at Nashville in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. This is Herbst’s third straight top-10 at Nashville.
● This is Herbst’s best finish of the 2023 season. His previous best was a fourth-place finish March 11 at Phoenix Raceway.
● Herbst’s second-place finish bettered his previous best finish at Nashville – third, earned last year.
● Herbst finished seventh in Stage 1 to earn four bonus points and fifth in Stage 2 to earn six more bonus points.
● Custer earned his 10th top-10 of the season and his first top-10 in one career NASCAR Xfinity Series start at Nashville.
● This was Custer’s ninth straight top-10. He finished fifth April 1 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway, third April 15 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, fourth April 22 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, seventh April 29 at Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway, third May 13 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway, third May 29 at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway, won June 3 at Portland (Ore.) International Raceway, and finish sixth June 10 at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway.
● Custer finished second in Stage 1 to earn nine bonus points and second in Stage 2 to earn nine more bonus points.
● Custer led four times for 32 laps – his first lap led at Nashville.
Race Notes:
● AJ Allmendinger won the Tennessee Lottery 250 to score his 17th career NASCAR Xfinity Series victory, his second of the season and his first at Nashville. His margin over second-place Riley Herbst was 1.323 seconds.
● There were 11 caution periods for a total of 58 laps.
● Only 16 of the 38 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
● John Hunter Nemechek leaves Nashville as the championship leader with a nine-point advantage over second-place Austin Hill.
Sound Bites:
“This was a great weekend for the No. 98 Monster Energy team, and it was a great way to start off this new part of the season with Davin Restivo, my new crew chief. I walked into the shop on Monday this week and that’s the first time I had officially met him. It’s going to take time to get our communication perfect, but he promised me fast racecars and he brought just that this weekend. I’m glad that I can get a great finish at a track that’s been good to me in the past. Excited for what’s to come.” – Riley Herbst, driver of the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang
“I’m super frustrated. I think we had a winning No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang today at Nashville. We worked hard to get our way up to second and try to get the lead, and it’s super frustrating to end like this. I hate that it took playoff points away from us. We had a really fast car. Jonathan Toney and the crew did a great job putting this car together. We’ll head to Chicago next week though and try to win.” – Cole Custer, driver of the No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang
Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is The Loop 121 on Saturday, July 1 at the Chicago Street Course in Chicago, Illinois. The race begins at 5 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by USA and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
