COLE CUSTER | RILEY HERBST
Road America NASCAR Xfinity Series Advance
NASCAR Xfinity Series Overview
- Event: Henry 180 (Round 20 of 33)
- Date: Saturday, July 29
- Location: Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin
- Layout: 4.048-mile, 14-turn road course
- Time/TV/Radio: 3 p.m. EDT on NBC/MRN/SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Cole Custer Notes of Interest
- Cole Custer and the No. 00 Haas Automation team head to Saturday’s Henry 180 at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, ready to embrace another NASCAR Xfinity Series road-course weekend. In the team’s four races going left and right this season, Custer has won in two of them – June 3 at Portland (Ore.) International Raceway and July 2 in the Inaugural Chicago Street Race. In the season’s first road-course race March 25 at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas, Custer looked to be on his way to a solid finish until a late-race incident took him out of contention. Saturday’s race marks Custer’s 20th career Xfinity Series road-course starts. In his previous 19, he has earned 14 top-10 finishes and led a total of 41 laps with an average finish of 10.4. Custer’s average road-course finish is identical to his average finish in 21 Xfinity Series starts on short tracks – ovals less than 1 mile in length.
- Saturday’s Henry 180 will mark Custer’s fifth Xfinity Series start at Road America. In his four prior starts from 2017 to 2022, he only finished outside the top-10 once. He earned a best finish of fourth after starting from the front row in the August 2018 race on the 4.048-mile, 14-turn circuit. In his most recent start last season, in the No. 07 SS Greenlight Racing Ford Mustang, Custer qualified fourth and led six laps before an accident took him out on lap 43. Custer also has three starts outside of the Xfinity Series at Road America – two in the NASCAR Cup Series with a best result of 15th in July 2022, and one in the ARCA Menards Series, which resulted in an 11th-place finish after starting fifth in August 2017.
- Custer finished in the top-10 in all three of his NASCAR Truck Series outings on road courses, all at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Bowmanville, Ontario. His best was his most recent, a second-place run from the pole with a race-high 39 laps led in the No. 00 JR Motorsports entry in 2016.
Riley Herbst Notes of Interest
- Riley Herbst and the No. 98 Monster Energy team for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) hope to keep their momentum rolling as they head to Saturday’s Henry 180 at Road America. Last Saturday at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway, Herbst was in prime position to fight for his first career Xfinity Series victory when the team took a gamble and stretched his fuel run in the closing laps of the race. Herbst inherited the lead by staying on track during a lap-81 caution, but on the ensuing restart was unable to hold off his competitors on fresh tires. He held on for a fourth-place finish, his fourth top-five of the season and second with new crew chief Davin Restivo.
- Saturday’s race at Road America will mark Herbst’s fourth Xfinity Series start at the track. He posted back-to-back seventh-place finishes in his most recent outings at the iconic circuit, both with SHR, in 2021 and 2022. He qualified third for last season’s race and charged from the 34th starting position in the 2021 race. Herbst started fifth and finished 18th in his Road America debut in 2020. Herbst has one start outside of the Xfinity Series at Road America, a lone August 2017 outing during his rookie season in the ARCA Menards Series that resulted in a runner-up finish for the then-18-year-old driver. It was one of six top-fives and 10 top-10s in 19 starts for Herbst that season, which included a victory at Pocono.
- Only seven races remain before the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs begin Sept. 15 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, and Herbst is currently defending his spot in the 12-driver playoff field. Heading into the weekend at Road America, he sits 11th in the driver standings but 12th in the playoff standings. With last weekend’s fourth-place finish at Pocono, Herbst extended his buffer over 13th-place Parker Kligerman from 18 to 26 points. He’s in position to secure his top-12 position on points, but a win, of course, would guarantee Herbst a spot in the playoffs. Meanwhile, he and the team are focused on continuing to string together solid finishes and score stage points through the regular-season finale Sept. 9 at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City.
Cole Custer, Driver of the No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang
You’re headed to the 4.048-mile, 14-turn circuit at Road America after winning your last two road-course starts at Portland and Chicago. What are your expectations heading into the weekend with the No. 00 Haas Automation team?
“Road America is always a really fun place just because it’s a challenging course. There are so many different corners, and you kind of have a little bit of everything there. You have high-speed corners, slow-speed, so your car has to be ready for everything. The new pavement is definitely going to be different, so it’s going to be interesting to see how that changes things and how much the speed picks up. I still think it’ll be one of the best road courses we go to just because it has everything. I’m excited to go there with the No. 00 Haas Automation team this weekend to try to go for the win.”
What do you need to do in order to continue your road-course winning streak this weekend?
“I mean, there’s just so much that plays into these road courses, so you have to be prepared for anything it throws at you. There are so many different factors with the restarts and whether guys make mistakes or not. You just hope that you’re there to fight at the end of it all. So I think as long as we keep ourselves in a good position, have some solid speed in our Ford Mustang, and avoid making any big mistakes, we’ll have a shot to go to victory lane again this weekend.”
Riley Herbst, Driver of the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang
You’ve said Road America is one of your favorite road courses on the schedule, and you’ve had some good runs with seventh-place finishes the past two years. What are your expectations for the weekend?
“Road America is always a fun place to go race. The fans are awesome, and it’s just such a unique road course. There’s a lot of room to move around and try to pass, but it can also get you into some trouble just like any other road course. We’ve been decent on road courses this year, and I’m hoping that we can get a good run this weekend in Wisconsin. If we can have a good qualifying run on Friday, it can really help us out in the race. This No. 98 Monster Energy team can get this Ford Mustang in victory lane, but we just have to put a good weekend together – a fast car, no mistakes, and being there at the end. I’m ready for the challenge.”
With your runner-up finish in the ARCA Menards Series race at Road America in 2017 to go with your back-to-back seventh-place finishes in the Xfinity Series there the past two seasons, do you feel you have some unfinished business there?
“Not really. You never want to finish second as a racecar driver, but we outperformed our car back in 2017 after making some mistakes at the beginning of the race. Two years ago, we had a rough start to the race weekend after wrecking in practice, but we were able to battle all the way from the back to get a top-10 finish. I think if we can make it through the weekend without any mistakes and stay out of trouble, we can be in contention for the win at the end. We have the speed.”
