STEWART-HAAS RACING
NASCAR Xfinity Series: Richmond 250
Date: April 1, 2023
Event: Richmond 250 (Round 7 of 33)
Series: NASCAR Xfinity Series
Location: Richmond (Va.) Raceway (.75-mile oval)
Format: 250 laps, broken into three stages (75 laps/75 laps/100 laps)
Race Winner: Chandler Smith of Kaulig Racing (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Winner: Chandler Smith of Kaulig Racing (Chevrolet)
Stage 2 Winner: Josh Berry of JR Motorsports (Chevrolet)
SHR Race Finish:
● Cole Custer (Started 22nd / Finished 5th, completed 250 of 250 laps)
● Riley Herbst (Started 4th / Finished 23rd, completed 250 of 250 laps)
SHR Points:
● Riley Herbst (2nd with 265 points, 12 out of first)
● Cole Custer (10th with 196 points, 81 out of first)
SHR Notes:
● Custer earned his first top-five of the season and his third top-five in eight career NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at Richmond.
● Custer has never finished outside the top-15 at Richmond in his eight Xfinity Series starts.
● This was Custer’s third straight top-five at Richmond. During his last fulltime season in the Xfinity Series, Custer won in April 2019 and finished third in September 2019.
● Custer finished fifth in Stage 1 to earn six bonus points and fifth in Stage 2 to earn six more bonus points.
● Herbst finished second in Stage 1 to earn nine bonus points and third in Stage 2 to earn eight more bonus points.
● Herbst led two times for 27 laps to increase his laps-led total at Richmond to 28.
Race Notes:
● Chandler Smith won the Richmond 250 to score his first career NASCAR Xfinity Series victory in 10 starts. His margin over second-place John Hunter Nemechek was .298 of a second.
● There were six caution periods for a total of 43 laps.
● Twenty-three of the 38 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
● Austin Hill remains the championship leader after Richmond with a 12-point advantage over second-place Riley Herbst.
Sound Bites:
“It was great to have a solid run in our No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang today at Richmond. These past few weeks I feel like every time things seem to be going well, something goes wrong. So, it just feels awesome to have a solid run, have nothing happen, and get a top-five finish. I’m happy with it. Hopefully, we can keep this going in Martinsville.” – Cole Custer, driver of the No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang
“That was a tough one. We were one of the fastest cars on the track, and a great finish went away just like that. It’s racing though. We were putting a strong day together by leading laps and getting all those stage points. I felt like we were in a position to go for the win before that incident. We’ll take the off week to regroup and hopefully be back stronger at Martinsville with the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang.” – Riley Herbst, driver of the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang
Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is the Call811.com Before You Dig. 250 on Saturday, April 15 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. The race begins at 7:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FS1 and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
