Riley Herbst will etch a new beginning to his racing career by joining 23XI Racing for his first full-time campaign in the NASCAR Cup Series division in 2025.
Herbst, a 25-year-old racer from Las Vegas, Nevada, will assume the steering wheel of the No. 35 Toyota Camry XSE entry sponsored by longtime partner Monster Energy. He will compete alongside Tyler Reddick, driver of the No. 45 Toyota, and Bubba Wallace, driver of the No. 23 Toyota.
The news comes as Herbst is coming off his fifth consecutive full-time campaign in the Xfinity Series, where he piloted the No. 98 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Mustang entry to two victories, 15 top-10 results and a seventh-place result in the final standings after qualifying for his fourth Xfinity Playoffs. Following the closure of Stewart-Haas Racing at the conclusion of the 2024 season, Herbst was initially left without a ride for the 2025 season until his announcement at 23XI Racing was officially announced. As Herbst makes the move to 23XI Racing, Davin Restivo, who served as Herbst’s crew chief in the Xfinity Series, will also move to continue to serve as his Cup Series crew chief.
“It’s an honor to join 23XI and Toyota for the opportunity to race in the Cup Series each week,” Herbst said. “Racing full-time in the Cup Series has been my goal since I started in NASCAR and I’m excited to start my Cup career with such an accomplished and driven team. What 23XI has accomplished in a short time is impressive and I look forward to building on their success as the organization grows. It’s also great to continue representing Monster and I’m excited about adding to their legacy in NASCAR.”
Herbst, a former ARCA Menards Series Rookie-of-the-Year recipient and a two-time Baja 1000 Trophy Truck Spec Class winner, made his Cup Series debut during the 2023 Daytona 500, where he piloted the No. 15 Ford for Rick Ware Racing to a 10th-place finish. He would make three additional Cup starts between Rick Ware Racing and Front Row Motorsports for the remainder of the 2023 season, where he competed at Daytona in August and in both Talladega Superspeedway events. During the span, he notched a career-best ninth-place result at Talladega in October. This past season, Herbst made four Cup starts with Rick Ware Racing, where he notched a season-best 24th-place result during the 66th running of the Daytona 500.
In addition to making a total eight Cup starts to date, Herbst has made 175 career starts in the Xfinity Series and 11 in the Craftsman Truck Series. Within his Xfinity starts, he has notched three victories, two poles, 34 top-five results, 86 top-10 results, 506 laps led and an average-finishing result of 15.2 while competing between Stewart-Haas Racing and Joe Gibbs Racing.
The addition of Herbst as a full-time Cup competitor to 23XI Racing marks a milestone moment for the organization, which will field three full-time entries for the first time since debuting as a single-car operation in 2021 before expanding to fielding two full-time entries in 2022. Over the previous two seasons, 23XI Racing had fielded a third entry on a part-time basis (five races total), where select names that included Corey Heim, Kamui Kobayashi, Juan Pablo Montoya and Travis Pastrana took turns piloting the entry.
Currently, 23XI Racing has recorded eight victories, eight poles, 46 top-five results, 83 top-10 results and 1,889 laps led through a combined 257 Cup Series starts. The organization is coming off one of its strongest seasons to date, where Reddick and Wallace accumulated a combined 18 top-five results and 35 top-10 results. In addition, Reddick notched three victories and transferred all the way to the Championship 4 round before settling in a career-best fourth place in the final standings.
“As 23XI enters our fifth season next year, we felt the time was right to continue the growth of our organization by adding a third team, and Riley is a driver we think will be a great fit for us,” Steve Lauletta, team president of 23XI Racing, said. “We have a very solid foundation with both Bubba and Tyler, and we know they will be a great resource for Riley as he begins his journey in the Cup Series.”
The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season for both Riley Herbst and 23XI Racing is set to commence with the Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium on February 2 that will commence at 8 p.m. ET on FOX. This event will be followed by the 67th running of the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway that will air at 2:30 p.m. ET on FOX.
