Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Zoom Media Availability | Wednesday, March 3, 2021
Riley Herbst, driver of the No. 98 South Point Ford Mustang in the NASCAR XFINITY Series, is coming off a season-best 11th-place finish in last weekend’s race at Homestead-Miami Speedway. He spoke with members of the media this afternoon as he prepares for Saturday’s scheduled event at his hometown track — Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
RILEY HERBST, No. 98 South Point Ford Mustang — HOW EXCITED ARE YOU TO GET BACK TO LAS VEGAS? “It’s always exciting to go back home and see a few friends and family and get to race in front of them this time around, which is cool. It’s cool to have fans back in the stands, but just looking forward to hopefully putting a whole race together with our 98 team and running up towards the front.”
WHAT IS IT LIKE TO BE THE SOLE FOCUS AND NOT HAVE TEAMMATES? “It’s a bit different, to be honest with you, but at the plate track at Daytona I had two really good teammates in Austin Cindric and Ryan Sieg, and I felt like me and Austin worked pretty well together to keep our Mustangs up front, but throughout the day-to-day process it is a little bit different without two to three teammates with you every single week on the track. It’s kind of me just leaning on Richard Boswell than my teammates, but I also have really good Cup teammates as well that have won a lot of races in the XFINITY program at Stewart-Haas Racing in Chase Briscoe and Cole Custer that I can call up and ask them any questions any time, so I feel like we’re handling it pretty well.”
HOW DOES IT FEEL GOING INTO THESE RACES WITH NO PRACTICE AND BEING WITH A NEW TEAM? “I don’t feel behind at all this year. Last year was really overwhelming to go to places I’ve never been before without practice and try to go race there and by the time the end of the race rolled around or stage three I was just starting to figure out that racetrack and we were loaded up and headed to the next track next week. This time around I’ve been to these racetracks before and I’m definitely more confident in myself and the equipment and everything which is coming this season, so I’m really looking forward to this season and I feel like it will definitely be better.”
WHAT HAS IT BEEN LIKE ADJUSTING TO SHR THIS SEASON? “The culture is quite a bit different. Both are good cultures, they’re just different. I’m really liking and I’m really gelling with the new guys over at Stewart-Haas Racing. I feel like me and Richard have worked really well together these last couple of races, so I think things are going the right direction and, like I said, I’m just looking forward for a whole race to be put together from start to finish and I think we’ll have pretty good speed.”
WHAT IS IT ABOUT THE TRACK AT LAS VEGAS THAT SUITS YOUR DRIVING STYLE? “I don’t know. I feel like we’ve had speed there, but we haven’t really got the finishes that we wanted. I like that mile-and-a-half. It’s always cool. It gives you a little bit more confidence running at home in front of friends and family, so hopefully it will pay off this weekend.”
