COLE CUSTER | RILEY HERBST
Watkins Glen NASCAR Xfinity Series Advance
NASCAR Xfinity Series Overview
- Event: Mission 200 at The Glen (Round 25 of 33)
- Date: Saturday, Sept. 14
- Location: Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International
- Layout: 2.45-mile, seven-turn road course
- Time/TV/Radio: 3 p.m. EDT on USA/MRN/SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Cole Custer Notes of Interest
- Cole Custer is ready to trade in the high banks and unpredictability of superspeedway-style racing for the high-speed, left-and-right turns of Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International in Saturday’s Mission 200 at The Glen. Custer’s strength on road courses has been prevalent throughout his career. In his 27 Xfinity Series starts on road courses, Custer has scored two wins, 20 top-10s and led 26 laps. Last season, he scored two of his three wins on a road course and a street course – June 3 at Portland (Ore.) International Raceway and July 1 on the Chicago Street Course. The series has visited three road courses – Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas, Portland, and Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway – and the Chicago Street Course so far this season. Custer scored top-10 finishes in three of these four starts with a best finish of fourth on March 23 at COTA. In fact, Custer hasn’t finished outside the top-10 at a traditional road course in the Xfinity Series since an accident cut his race short on July 29, 2023, at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. Custer and the No. 00 HighPoint.com team look to be contenders to win this weekend as he attempts to continue to close the gap on Justin Allgaier’s regular-season points lead with just two races to go before the Xfinity Series Playoffs begin Sept. 28 at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City.
- Saturday’s Mission 200 at The Glen will mark Custer’s sixth Xfinity Series start at the 2.45-mile, seven-turn circuit. His five prior starts feature back-to-back top-10 finishes in 2018 (sixth) and 2019 (seventh), and a seventh-place result in August 2023. He’s never finished outside the top-12 in his Xfinity Series starts at the track. Custer also has six starts outside of the Xfinity Series at Watkins Glen – three 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 in August 2022.
- HighPoint.com is a leading provider of technology infrastructure solutions that is headquartered in Sparta, New Jersey. HighPoint has been a partner of Stewart-Haas Racing since 2020, when the company supported Chase Briscoe’s NASCAR Xfinity Series campaign, a collaboration that netted a series-best nine victories. HighPoint has climbed the NASCAR ladder with Briscoe and has helped Stewart-Haas maximize its IT investments. As an IT Solutions Integrator focused on all things that connect, HighPoint helps its customers with the selection and supply of network infrastructure, mobility, collaboration, data center, security solutions and the risk-mitigated implementation and management of their technology. The company, founded in 1996, is a minority-owned business that serves markets in its nearby Tri-State Region (New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware) and the Southeastern United States via its presence in Charlotte, North Carolina, as well as globally with offices in Amsterdam and London. To learn more about HighPoint’s solutions, visit HighPoint.com.
Riley Herbst Notes of Interest
- Riley Herbst is looking for a change of scenery in Saturday’s Mission 200 at The Glen at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International. After being caught up in an accident with just a handful of laps to go in last Saturday’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Herbst was able to limp to the finish after an otherwise solid day of running in the top-10 at Atlanta. With that heartbreak behind him, Herbst is hoping that the No. 98 Monster Energy team can rebound to earn a top finish at Watkins Glen, the track where his playoff bid last year took a critical hit when Herbst ran inside the top-10 all day, but a mechanical issue forced him to retire early with a 35th-place result. This weekend, Herbst finds himself already locked into the seven-race postseason thanks to his July 20 win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. With two races to go until the playoffs kick off Sept. 28 at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Herbst is sitting seventh in the regular-season points standings and eighth in the playoff standings with seven playoff points.
- Saturday’s race at Watkins Glen will mark Herbst’s fourth Xfinity Series start at the track. Best among his three prior starts was a seventh-place finish in August 2022. He finished 13th in his first start at the track in August 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 road courses in the last year, bouncing back from several tough runs at the start of the year to nab top-15 finishes in five of the eight road-course races last season. He earned a 10th-place finish in last year’s first road-course race at COTA on March 25, 2023. He then finished 15th when the series visited Sonoma for the first time on June 10. In his fifth-place finish July 29 at Road America, Herbst rebounded from incidents during the race to work his way from the back of the pack. He followed that up with a 12th-place result after starting 10th at the Aug. 12 Indianapolis Grand Prix. He closed the season with his strongest run of the year at a track that has troubled him in the past, the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway Roval. Herbst finished fourth in that Oct. 7 race, his best Roval finish after back-to-back DNFs in 2021 and 2022. While his road-course starts in 2024 have been riddled with bad luck, Herbst has proven it’s never too late in the season to turn luck around. His fourth-place finish at Charlotte was his first of five straight top-fives to close out the 2023 season, which included his first career Xfinity Series victory Oct. 14 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Cole Custer, Driver of the No. 00 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse
You’re welcoming HighPoint.com to your car this weekend at Watkins Glen for the second year in a row. It’s been an SHR partner for several years and made the move last year to sponsor you in the Xfinity Series for a race. You earned a sixth-place finish. What does it mean to have the company’s support?
“HighPoint’s support means a lot to me and Stewart-Haas. The whole family and all the people over there are extremely caring and really on the ground floor with things. Mike (Mendiburu, owner) has always been a big supporter of my career. We met years ago and it’s nice to finally be able to work with them on my own car. It’s really cool to see just how much effort they put into their business and seeing how invested they are in NASCAR. It’s hard to come by these days. I think you’ve seen it with their investment in the Stewart-Haas team all these years. I’m excited to have them back as primary partner at Watkins Glen. Overall, just seeing how invested they are in the sport and how much they love racing is pretty awesome. I can’t thank them enough for also investing in me. Hopefully, we can give them another good run and park their Ford Mustang in victory lane.”
You’re heading to the fourth traditional road course of the 2024 season. In the three prior starts, you scored top-10 finishes. Talk about your expectations for the weekend at Watkins Glen, given your success on road courses.
“Watkins Glen is a fun track for me. I’ve never finished outside the top-12 there, but it’s honestly just a high-speed, fast road course. It’s difficult for sure, but I think that’s what makes it more fun as a driver. You have to be careful not to overstep or lose your temper too quickly. Road courses are all about patience so you can stay out of trouble and be there at the end. You’ve seen that countless times – including my win at Portland when I passed the leaders who got tangled up on a restart. If you’re too aggressive, you can put yourself in a worse position. I think the No. 00 team will be one of the ones to watch this weekend.”
Riley Herbst, Driver of the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang Dark Horse
The No. 98 Monster Energy team has shown so much speed at road courses, 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 at The Glen?
“Our No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang has been fast all year on any style of track. It’s just a testament to the hard work that this team is putting in each and every week to make us better. The only one I will say that we were truly slow is COTA earlier this year, but every other race has been great. We’ve had some bad luck. We’ve had some work cut out for us. But, we never gave up. I think that mentality has only helped us get better. I’m thankful for these guys for sticking by me and giving me fast cars each week. Last year was tough at Watkins Glen, but now we’re not focused on making it into the playoffs. We’re already in. Now, we can focus on winning and preparing for these final races. There isn’t any other team I would rather head to a road course with.”
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 as a driver, for sure. 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 turns on this course 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 to hopefully compete for a win, and given the speed we’ve had on road courses, I think we’re in a good spot this weekend. We’ve had top-five speed almost every week, it seems, so now it’s just about avoiding mistakes and having another perfect race. If I’ve learned anything, it’s that it’s never too late to turn your luck around.”
