COLE CUSTER | RILEY HERBST
Watkins Glen NASCAR Xfinity Series Advance
NASCAR Xfinity Series Overview
- Event: Shriners Children’s 200 (Round 23 of 33)
- Date: Saturday, Aug. 19
- Location: Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International
- Layout: 2.45-mile, seven-turn road course
- Time/TV/Radio: 3:30 p.m. EDT on USA/MRN/SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Cole Custer Notes of Interest
- Cole Custer and his No. 00 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) will be sporting the colors of HighPoint.com as he looks for another strong road-course finish during Saturday’s Shriners Children’s 200. Custer and his team have scored two road-course victories in the first six races this year where competitors turned both left and right. The first came when Custer parked his Ford Mustang in victory lane June 3 at Portland (Ore.) International Raceway in his first start at the track. He followed that up July 1 in the Inaugural Chicago Street Race, where he led all 25 laps of the rain-shortened NASCAR Xfinity Series race. He finished sixth June 10 on the road course at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway, and sixth again after rebounding from a spin in last Saturday’s Indianapolis 150 on the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In the season’s first road-course outing March 25 at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas, Custer looked to be on his way to compete for the win before contact with another car took him out of contention late in the race, leaving him to settle for a 32nd-place finish. He was running in the top-three for most of the July 29 race at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, before an accident ended his day eight laps from the finish.
- Saturday’s Shriners Children’s 200 will mark Custer’s fifth Xfinity Series start at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International. His four prior starts feature back-to-back top-10 finishes in 2018 (sixth) and 2019 (seventh), and he’s never finished outside the top-12. Custer also has five starts outside of the Xfinity Series at Watkins Glen – two in the NASCAR Cup Series and three in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East. He earned a best K&N Pro Series East finish of third in August 2016, and a best Cup Series finish of 11th a year ago.
- The countdown is on. Only four races remain before the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs begin Sept. 15 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. Custer has already locked in his spot in the 12-driver playoff field by virtue of his two wins, but he’s still on the hunt for more playoff points to help him advance through the postseason – all the way to the Championship 4 finale Nov. 4 at Phoenix Raceway. He and the team plan to use the final races before the regular season finale Sept. 9 at Kansas Speedway to perfect their performance. Prior to this season, Custer was the Xfinity Series championship runner-up in both 2018 and 2019.
- Custer will be pulling double duty once again this weekend as he’ll also be back behind the wheel of the No. 51 Ford Mustang for Rick Ware Racing (RWR) in Sunday’s Go Bowling at The Glen NASCAR Cup Series race. It will be his fifth Cup Series start of the season with RWR, the previous four coming July 9 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, July 17 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, July 23 at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway, and Aug. 7 at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn.
Riley Herbst Notes of Interest
- After a strong rebound in last Saturday’s race on the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Riley Herbst and the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang team for SHR are ready to keep up the momentum in Saturday’s Shriners Children’s 200 at Watkins Glen. Last Saturday, Herbst started 10th and ran in the top-10 for a majority of the race, including a fifth-place finish in the second stage to earn six bonus points. He continued to run in the top-five until a speeding penalty on a lap-42 green-flag pit stop sent him back in the pack, from there the Las Vegas native rallied for a 12th-place finish, his 13th top-15 in 22 races this season.
- Saturday’s race at Watkins Glen will mark Herbst’s third Xfinity Series start at the track. Best among his two prior starts was a seventh-place finish last August. He finished 13th in his first start at the track in 2021 with the No. 98 Monster Energy team. He also has two starts at The Glen outside of the Xfinity Series – one in the ARCA Menards Series in August 2021, which resulted in a sixth-place finish, and one in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East, which resulted in a 12th-place finish.
- Herbst has proven his resilience on the road courses this year, bouncing back from several tough runs on the ovals at the start of the year to nab top-15 finishes in four of the six road-course races so far. He earned a 10th-place finish in the first road-course race of the year March 25 at COTA. He then finished 15th when the series visited Sonoma for the first time on June 10. In the most recent two road-course races, Herbst rebounded from incidents during the race to work his way from the back of the pack, including his fifth-place finish July 29 at Road America.
- With only four races remaining before the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs begin Sept. 15 at Bristol, Herbst is in the process of defending his spot in the 12-driver playoff field as he works his way up the standings. Heading into the weekend at Michigan two weeks ago, he sat 10th in the regular-season standings but 11th in the playoff standings. Herbst’s fourth-place result on July 22 at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway, his fifth-place finish July 29 at Road America, and his sixth-place finish at Michigan helped him extend his buffer over 13th-place Parker Kligerman from 18 to 34 points. He also jumped to ninth in the points standings, putting Sheldon Creed on the bubble between Herbst and Kligerman. While the Monster Energy driver is in position to secure his top-12 position on points, a win during the final four regular-season races would guarantee Herbst a spot in the playoffs.
Cole Custer, Driver of the No. 00 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang
You’re welcoming HighPoint.com to your car this weekend at Watkins Glen, which has been an SHR partner for several years and now has made the move to sponsor you in the Xfinity Series. What does it mean to have the company’s support?
“HighPoint.com’s support means a lot to me and SHR. The whole family and all the people over there are extremely caring and really on the ground floor with things. It’s really cool to see just how much effort they put into their business and seeing how invested they are in NASCAR. I think you’ve seen it with their investment in the team all these years. I’m excited to add them as a primary partner at Watkins Glen. Overall, just seeing how invested they are in the sport and how much they love racing is pretty awesome. Hopefully, we can give them a good run and get to victory lane.”
You’re heading to the second consecutive road-course race and third in the last four weekends. How would you describe the difference between an infield road-course circuit like Indianapolis compared to a traditional road course like Watkins Glen?
“Watkins Glen is just so much different because it’s so high-speed. You can do so much there, but there are also different things you have to fight at Watkins Glen versus other tracks. You’re going so fast. In essence, you have to have the car set up to handle more aerodynamically well for everything that’s going to be thrown at you. Watkins Glen just throws that element of high speed into it so it’s a lot different than any other road course on the schedule. The No. 00 team and I are excited for the challenge, though, and hopefully we can show the same speed that we’ve had for the past few road-course races.”
Riley Herbst, Driver of the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang
The No. 98 Monster Energy team has shown so much speed at road courses this year, but bad luck has taken you out of contention for some potentially great finishes. What do you need this weekend to get the job done and park your Ford Mustang in victory lane?
“Our Monster Energy Ford Mustang was fast at Indianapolis last weekend, and that’s just a testament to the hard work that this team is putting in each and every week. It was a shame that we got that speeding penalty late in the race. We had our work cut out for us, but we never gave up. A 12th-place finish isn’t what we wanted, but it could’ve been a lot worse with the cards we were dealt. I’m thankful for these guys for sticking by me and giving me fast cars each week. We thought we were strong enough to win at Indy, or at least run in the top-five, but that confidence should carry over to Watkins Glen, too. They are very different tracks, but we’ve been strong on road courses all season. The plan is to continue to show that this weekend.”
Watkins Glen seems to be a favorite road course among the drivers. Describe what goes through your mind as you’re making your way around it.
“Watkins Glen is a fun track for me as a driver. It’s such a fast road course, and you really have to think about each turn so you’re not getting yourself into trouble. Each of the seven turns is unique, so you just have to be on top of your game every time you go there. I’m excited to head back there after a strong run last year, and given the speed we’ve had on road courses this season. We’ve had top-three speed every week, it seems, so now it’s just about avoiding mistakes and having a perfect race. Hoping the No. 98 Monster Energy team can do just that this weekend.”
