STEWART-HAAS RACING
Talladega 300
Date: April 20, 2024
Event: Talladega 300 (Round 9 of 33)
Series: NASCAR Xfinity Series
Location: Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway (2.66-mile oval)
Format: 113 laps, broken into three stages (25 laps/25 laps/63 laps)
Note: Race extended 11 laps past its scheduled 113-lap distance due to a green-white-checkered finish.
Race Winner: Jesse Love of Richard Childress Racing (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Winner: Jesse Love of Richard Childress Racing (Chevrolet)
Stage 2 Winner: Austin Hill of Richard Childress Racing (Chevrolet)
SHR Race Finish:
● Riley Herbst (Started 8th / Finished 2nd, Running, completed 124 of 124 laps)
● Cole Custer (Started 4th / Finished 10th, Running, completed 124 of 124 laps)
SHR Points:
● Cole Custer (2nd with 343 points, 14 out of first)
● Riley Herbst (6th with 272 points, 85 out of first)
SHR Notes:
● Herbst earned his second top-five of the season and his second top-five in eight career NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at Talladega.
● Herbst has only finished outside the top-15 twice at Talladega since joining SHR in 2021.
● Herbst’s runner-up finish bettered his previous best finish at Talladega – fourth, earned in April 2021.
● Herbst finished ninth in Stage 1 to earn two bonus points and eighth in Stage 2 to earn three more bonus points.
● Herbst led three times for 13 laps to increase his laps-led total at Talladega to 39.
● Custer earned his seventh top-10 of the season and his third top-10 in five career NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at Talladega.
● This was Custer’s second straight top-10 at Talladega. He finished fifth last April.
● This was Custer’s seventh straight top-10. He finished second March 2 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, fifth March 9 at Phoenix Raceway, fourth March 23 at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin Texas, 10th March 30 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway, eighth April 6 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, and fifth last Saturday at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.
● Custer finished 10th in Stage 1 to earn one bonus point and 10th in Stage 2 to earn one more bonus point.
● Custer led two times for four laps – his first laps led at Talladega.
Race Notes:
● Jesse Love won the Talladega 300 to score his first career NASCAR Xfinity Series victory in nine starts. His margin over second-place Herbst was .141 of a second.
● There were six caution periods for a total of 28 laps.
● Twenty-two of the 38 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
● Chandler Smith remains the championship leader after Talladega with a 14-point advantage over second-place Custer.
Sound Bites:
“It was hectic, for sure, with a lot of people battling fuel mileage. I’m just really, really proud of everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing and Monster Energy. We kind of know that we have lacked a little bit on the superspeedways to the RCR cars, but I felt like we’re as good as them now. I felt like we could beat them, but it was a weird race. It’s kind of been an up and down start to the year, but I’m proud of everybody on this No. 98 team for sticking with me. I’m ready to go win $100,000 at Dover.” –Riley Herbst, driver of the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang Dark Horse
“It was a solid day. We led some laps and I think the Fords worked pretty well together. That’s one of the fastest speedway cars I’ve ever had, so that was a lot to hang our hats on. We just need to find that last little bit. It was going to be within our reach to try and win, but we just started stumbling on gas. Overall, it was a really solid day, but it didn’t pan out how we needed it to. It was stumbling on gas and at that point you know you’re probably going to run out in the next two or three laps and we had to pit.” –Cole Custer, driver of the No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang Dark Horse
Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is the BetRivers 200 on Saturday, April 27 at Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway. The race begins at 1:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FS1 and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
