STEWART-HAAS RACING
NASCAR Xfinity Series: Food City 300
Date: Sept. 15, 2023
Event: Food City 300 (Round 27 of 33)
Series: NASCAR Xfinity Series
Location: Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway (.533-mile, concrete oval)
Format: 300 laps, broken into three stages (85 laps/85 laps/130 laps)
Race Winner: Justin Allgaier of JR Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Winner: Cole Custer of Stewart-Haas Racing (Ford)
Stage 2 Winner: Justin Allgaier of JR Motorsports (Chevrolet)
SHR Race Finish:
● Cole Custer (Started 1st / Finished 4th, Running, completed 300 of 300 laps)
● Riley Herbst (Started 16th/ Finished 8th, Running, completed 300 of 300 laps)
SHR Points:
● Cole Custer (3rd with 2,069 points, 39 points above the top-eight cutoff)
● Riley Herbst (13th with 705 points)
SHR Race Notes:
● Custer earned his 11th top-five of the season and his third top-five in seven career Xfinity Series starts at Bristol.
● Custer has only finished outside the top-10 twice at Bristol in the Xfinity Series.
● Custer won Stage 1 to earn 10 bonus points and one playoff point. He finished second in Stage 2 to earn nine more bonus points.
● Custer led two times for 109 laps to increase his laps-led total at Bristol to 140.
● Herbst earned his 12th top-10 of the season and his fourth top-10 in five career Xfinity Series starts at Bristol.
● Herbst has only finished outside the top-10 once at Bristol in the Xfinity Series.
● This is Herbst’s fourth straight top-10 at Bristol. He finished fifth last September, third in 2021, and 10th in 2020.
● Herbst finished eighth in Stage 2 to earn three bonus points.
Race Notes:
● Justin Allgaier won the Food City 300 to score his 22nd career Xfinity Series victory, his third of the season and his second at Bristol. His margin over second-place Daniel Hemric was 1.695 seconds.
● There were six caution periods for a total of 48 laps.
● Only 14 of the 38 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
Sound Bites:
“It was a good points day for the No. 00 team. I can’t believe that there weren’t many wrecks. I mean honestly, it was a pretty clean race which is great for the series. Overall, we were close to perfect on that second run. I felt like we had a really good No. 00 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang, and then we used that last set of tires and for whatever reason we just got way too loose. It was a solid day and our guys did a great job. I wish we could’ve gotten Kevin (Harvick) a win with this throwback scheme, but you know, it’s definitely a good sign that we’re moving in the right direction. We definitely wanted to win at Bristol, but we’ll move on to Texas.” – Cole Custer, driver of the No. 00 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang
“I mean, it was a decent race for the No. 98 Monster Energy team. Last to eighth. I wish we hadn’t had to start in the back because I think we could’ve run up front and been able to make the adjustments needed to make the car better. Overall, proud of the team for that comeback. We’ll head to Texas and hopefully have another good day.” – Riley Herbst, driver of the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang
Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is the Andy’s Frozen Custard 300 on Saturday, Sept. 23 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth. It is the second race of the Xfinity Series playoffs and the second race of the Round of 12. The race begins at 3:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by USA and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
