COLE CUSTER | RILEY HERBST
Homestead-Miami NASCAR Xfinity Series Advance
NASCAR Xfinity Series Overview
- Event: Credit One NASCAR Amex Credit Card 300 (Round 31 of 33)
- Date: Saturday, Oct. 26
- Location: Homestead-Miami Speedway
- Layout: 1.5-mile oval
- Time/TV/Radio: 4 p.m. EDT on CW/MRN/SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Cole Custer Notes of Interest
- “Stone Cole” Custer returns to the site of his first career NASCAR Xfinity Series win sporting a sleek, new NXT on CW paint scheme on his No. 00 Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Saturday’s Credit One NASCAR Amex Credit Card 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Similar to his paint scheme at Kansas Speedway on Sept. 28 to kick off the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs, Custer’s No. 00 hot rod will showcase several of the NXT on CW’s championship-winning wrestlers. Launched by WWE Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque, NXT has aired weekly since 2012 and features the brightest young talent in sports entertainment. Nearly 90 percent of the participants in last year’s WrestleMania were developed under the NXT banner. Led by WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels, NXT is popular with younger audiences. WWE Superstars, including Roman Reigns, Seth “Freakin” Rollins and Charlotte Flair, have come up through NXT, a series similar in concept to the Xfinity Series where rising stars attempt to climb their way to the elite level of their sport. Many NXT Superstars have gone on to WWE’s main roster and performed on the biggest stage. This weekend, Custer’s No. 00 Ford Mustang will once again highlight four of the NXT’s Superstars – NXT Women’s champion Roxanne Perez and Trick Williams on the hood, and NXT Women’s North American champion Kelani Jordan and NXT champion Ethan Page on the quarter panels. The No. 00 Stewart-Haas team will also host Perez, Williams, and Tony “The Don” D’Angelo at the track for their first NASCAR race this weekend at Homestead along with Jordan who attended the Xfinity Series playoff opener at Kansas. Custer made a guest appearance on Tuesday night’s episode of NXT on CW, where he showed off a few wrestling moves of his own. Watch Custer’s highlights from the show HERE.
- Saturday’s race at Homestead will mark Custer’s sixth Xfinity Series start at the 1.5-mile South Florida oval. He finished first, second and second there in the 2017, 2018 and 2019 season finales, respectively after finishing 17th in his Xfinity Series debut there in 2016. His 2017 win came from the second starting position, and he led 182 of the 200 race laps en route to the checkered flag. It was his milestone first in the Xfinity Series driving the No. 00 Ford Mustang. Custer’s runner-up finishes in 2018 and 2019 placed him second in the final championship standings. Custer has led a total of 292 laps at Homestead in his Xfinity Series career and has completed all but one lap he’s been able to run there. He has an additional four starts at Homestead outside of the Xfinity Series – three in the NASCAR Cup Series and one in the NASCAR Truck Series. His best Cup Series finish of 22nd came in June 2020. In his lone Truck Series start there in 2016, he started second and finished 10th.
- Last year at Homestead, Custer looked to be on his way to another Homestead victory after qualifying on the pole for the second-to-last race in the Round of 8. He led 114 of the 200 race laps and gained 18 valuable bonus points by finishing first in Stage 1 and third in Stage 2 before a blown tire forced him to pit from the lead on lap 151. After the tire change, he resumed deep in the field and one lap down, but his perseverance and sheer determination enabled him to climb his way back up to 13th. While it wasn’t the win that would’ve locked him into the Championship 4, Custer and the team did take advantage of a good points day as he left the race above the Championship 4 cutline holding down fourth in the playoff standings.
- Custer isn’t the only member of the No. 00 Ford team who knows how to win at Homestead. His crew chief Jonathan Toney was lead engineer of team co-owner Tony Stewart’s drive there to the 2011 NASCAR Cup Series championship. Toney also served as an engineer for Custer during his 2017 Xfinity Series victory at Homestead.
- The CW is America’s fifth major broadcast network and is available to 100 percent of U.S. television households. The CW delivers primetime entertainment programming and more than 500 hours of sports programming annually, including LIV Golf, ACC football and basketball, Pac-12 football, “Inside the NFL,” WWE NXT and the NASCAR Xfinity Series. The free, ad-supported CW App is widely available on all major platforms. The CW App is home to The CW’s primetime programming, live streaming of LIV Golf tournaments, and a library of entertaining film and television content. The CW is 75 percent owned by Nexstar Media Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: NXST), a leading diversified media company and the largest CW affiliate group. For more information about The CW, visit www.cwtv.com.
Riley Herbst Notes of Interest
- Riley Herbst and the No. 98 Monster Energy team head to Saturday’s Credit One NASCAR Amex Credit Card 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway with their eyes on the prize – another win on the 2024 season. Last Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Herbst started seventh for the 201-lap event. He scored a total of 10 stage points with his third-place and ninth-place stage finishes, respectively, and battled for a top-10 spot in the final stage as the team struggled with the handling of the No. 98 Ford Mustang Dark Horse. He was able to lead once for four laps to increase his laps led at his hometown track to 107, and Herbst showed his persistence as he passed several cars in the closing laps to bring home a seventh-place result. It was his fourth straight top-10 at Las Vegas and his 13th top-10 of the 2024 season. He now heads to a track where he followed up his first career win last season with a strong runner-up finish as the highest finishing non-playoff driver.
- The Credit One NASCAR Amex Credit Card 300 will mark Herbst’s sixth career start at Homestead, where his best finish of second came last October in the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang – just a week after his first career victory at Las Vegas. In the final laps of last year’s race, Herbst was closing the gap between himself and leader Sam Mayer before ultimately finishing just .227 of a second behind in the runner-up position. He’s now on a mission to finish one spot better and join his teammate Cole Custer as an Xfinity Series winner at Homestead. In October 2023, Herbst finished an impressive eighth. He was 11th in the February 2021 race after back-to-back top-10s there in a June 2020 weekend doubleheader – 10th in the Saturday race and ninth in the Sunday race.
- Herbst is driving for a team that knows how to win at Homestead. In addition to Custer’s win at the track in the No. 00 car, the previous driver of the No. 98 Ford Mustang, Chase Briscoe, won the second race of the 2020 doubleheader after a seventh-place finish in the Saturday race, and runner-up finishes in 2018 and 2019.
- Herbst has nothing to lose and everything to win in the final three races of the season and his final races with the Stewart-Haas Racing Xfinity Series program. With the team shutting down at the end of the 2024 season, Herbst looks to up his Xfinity Series career win total. He currently has two wins, both coming with Stewart-Haas in the No. 98 Ford Mustang. The final three races are at three of his best tracks on the circuit. Consistency has been key for the No. 98 Monster Energy driver at Homestead. He has never finished outside the top-11 in five previous career starts on the 1.5-mile South Florida oval. The next race, Nov. 2 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, comes at a track where Herbst has finished outside the top-10 just three times in eight starts, with a best finish of third in October 2022, which he followed up with a fourth-place finish last October. And the season concludes Nov. 9 at Phoenix Raceway, where Herbst drove to best finishes of fourth in both 2021 races and again in both of the 2023 races there. He has also finished outside the top-11 just three-times in 10 career starts.
Cole Custer, Driver of the No. 00 NXT on CW Ford Mustang Dark Horse
You’re heading to the second race of the Round of 8 and you’re inside the top-four, 16 points above the Championship 4 cutline, after your eighth-place finish last Saturday at Las Vegas. After the drama coming to the checkered flag at Martinsville last season, do you feel like you have to win at Homestead to make it to the next round?
“I don’t think we’re in a place where we have to win, but you never know what could happen at these next two races. The No. 00 team has had a ton of speed in the playoffs, including last weekend where we led laps. I think if we keep managing our races, having good races, and doing what we need to do, then we can make it to the next round on points alone. There’s no reason why we can’t be in a good position on points to make it to the Championship 4, but a win this weekend at Homestead would just make the nerves a lot easier heading into Martinsville. I was so nervous last year heading into that race because you never know what could happen there. You obviously want to win before then to help ease your mind, but you also want to look at the bigger picture and build a points cushion. We almost won at Homestead last year had it not been for that blown tire, so I know we can do it again.”
You scored your first career Xfinity Series victory in November 2017 at Homestead after just missing the Championship 4. Talk about your career at Homestead and if there’s any extra confidence because of your history there.
“Homestead has always been a strong place for the Stewart-Haas Racing Xfinity Series team and for myself. You saw that with the strong run we had built last year and then Riley (Herbst, teammate) finishing second. Having my first win at Homestead was big, obviously, but also we’ve been consistently racing for the win at that track without fail. We’re always in the fight to win no matter the season, it seems like. I think our team overall just has a good package for this track and intermediate tracks. Hopefully, that remains true this weekend, as well. Homestead is a place that I’ve always been comfortable at and somewhere where you really have to search around the track to find grip and figure out what line works best for your car. It’s a lot of fun for myself as a driver, so I’m excited to head back there and try to find victory lane again.”
Riley Herbst, Driver of the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang Dark Horse
With only three races left in the regular season, how do you approach them as they’ll be the last for the No. 98 team and your last with Stewart-Haas Racing?
“It’s bittersweet. Obviously, I’m excited for the future, but this has been my home for the past four seasons. These crew guys are like my family and they’ve watched me grow from that first season. I want to do everything I can to add another win to the No. 98 banner before the end of the season. The history has been so rich with this number, and to be able to be a part of it has been amazing. I’m sure we can get another one before the final checkered flag. We’re not approaching anything differently than before, but with no championship to battle for anymore, we’ve got nothing to lose and everything to win. Who’s to say we can’t go out and win the final three races? I want to end on a strong note with these guys and I know we can find victory lane again before the year is over.”
Homestead has been a strong track for you. Coming off a strong run at Las Vegas, another intermediate track, does that boost your and the team’s confidence for what can come from this weekend’s race?
“It definitely gives us a confidence boost, especially with how strong our intermediate program has been in the past. At the same time, we take it one race at a time because anything can happen in these races. Homestead is an intermediate track, but it’s still different from Las Vegas or one of the other ones. I’ve run well at Homestead in my career, including that runner-up finish last year. At the same time, it’s a good track for a lot of people in the Xfinity Series, including my teammate Cole Custer. Everyone is going to run their best there, especially with seven guys still vying for three spots in the Championship 4. I’m hoping that we can take the notes from last year to run up front this weekend. We’ve had the speed all year, so now it’s just about having a perfect weekend. I have no doubt in my mind that we can contend for the win.”
