STEWART-HAAS RACING
NASCAR Xfinity Series: Alsco Uniforms 250
Date: July 8, 2023
Event: Alsco Uniforms 250 (Round 17 of 33)
Series: NASCAR Xfinity Series
Location: Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia (1.54-mile oval)
Format: 163 laps, broken into three stages (40 laps/40 laps/83 laps)
Note: Race extended six laps past its scheduled 163-lap distance due to a green-white-checkered finish.
Race Winner: John Hunter Nemechek of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)
Stage 1 Winner: Riley Herbst of Stewart-Haas Racing (Ford)
Stage 2 Winner: Sheldon Creed of Richard Childress Racing (Chevrolet)
SHR Race Finish:
● Cole Custer (Started 7th / Finished 3rd, Running, completed 169 of 169 laps)
● Riley Herbst (Started 6th / Finished 36th, Accident, completed 88 of 169 laps)
SHR Points:
● Cole Custer (3rd with 633 points, 45 out of first)
● Riley Herbst (11th with 440 points, 238 out of first)
SHR Notes:
● Custer earned his eighth top-five of the season and his second top-five in five career NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at Atlanta.
● This was Custer’s 11th 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, sixth June 10 at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway, ninth June 24 at Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway, and won last weekend at the inaugural Chicago Street Race.
● This was Custer’s third straight top-12 at Atlanta.
● Custer finished sixth in Stage 2 to earn five bonus points.
● Herbst won Stage 1 to earn 10 bonus points and one playoff point.
● Herbst led once for three laps to increase his laps-led total at Atlanta to 14.
Race Notes:
● John Hunter Nemechek won the Alsco Uniforms 250 to score his fifth career NASCAR Xfinity Series victory, his third of the season and his first at Atlanta. His margin over second-place Daniel Hemric was .245 of a second.
● There were eight caution periods for a total of 50 laps.
● Only 17 of the 38 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
● Nemechek remains the championship leader after Atlanta with a 16-point advantage over second-place Austin Hill.
Sound Bites:
“Man, those final laps were chaos. We were all just wondering if we were close on fuel, so we were all running around the apron. You’re just praying that no one runs out of gas. Half the field did though. The No. 00 Haas Automation team did a great job on fuel mileage today. We just didn’t have a ton of help there at the end. You know how it is here, once you try to make a move, you get shuffled back. It was fun though, and we had a great Ford Mustang. Things just didn’t happen to play out right. I thought the seas might part there at the end when everyone was running out of gas. We got it up to third though. It was a good run, and we’ll try to keep it rolling.” – Cole Custer, driver of the No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang
“We had a pretty good night going, obviously. The No. 98 Monster Energy team won the first stage, and I thought our Ford Mustang was good enough to run in the top-three. Then, I just rolled it into Turn 1 on the restart and I knew my tire was down. I tried to save it and probably got out of the gas too soon. It just lost it on me. I’m sorry to everyone else who got involved. I hate this for my Stewart-Haas Racing guys. I just wish we hadn’t blown a tire.” – Riley Herbst, driver of the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang
Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is the Ambetter Health 200 on Saturday, July 15 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The race begins at 3 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by USA and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
