COLE CUSTER | RILEY HERBST
Charlotte Roval NASCAR Xfinity Series Advance
NASCAR Xfinity Series Overview
- Event: Drive for the Cure 250 presented by BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina (Round 29 of 33)
- Date: Saturday, Oct. 7
- Location: Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval
- Layout: 2.28-mile, 17-turn road course
- Time/TV/Radio: 3 p.m. EDT on NBC/PRN/SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Cole Custer Notes of Interest
- Cole Custer heads to Saturday’s Drive for the Cure 250 on the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway Roval with nothing to lose but everything to win. Prior to last weekend’s Xfinity Series open date, the driver of the No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) clinched his spot in the Round of 8 of this year’s playoffs on points. With his sixth-place finish Sept. 23 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Custer found himself third in the playoff standings, 62 points above the top-eight cutline. He finished fourth in the Round of 12 opener Sept. 15 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. Custer has now made the Round of 8 in all four of his fulltime seasons in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. He joins Justin Allgaier and John Hunter Nemechek as the only drivers to lock themselves into the next round of playoffs prior to this weekend’s cutoff race at Charlotte. With the weight of playoff points racing off his shoulders for one race, Custer plans to focus on ending the Round of 12 on a high note by parking his Ford Mustang in victory lane at the Charlotte Roval. With top-10 finishes in his two prior starts at the track, Custer is confident as he and his team head to the eighth road-course race of the 2023 season.
- The Drive for the Cure 250 marks Custer’s third Xfinity Series start at the road course built inside the Charlotte Motor Speedway oval. He made his first start in the inaugural Roval race in September 2018, when he finished seventh and led five laps. He followed that with an eighth-place finish in September 2019 after starting sixth. He has an additional three starts outside of the Xfinity Series on the Roval, all coming in the NASCAR Cup Series from 2020 to 2022 with a best finish of ninth in October 2020.
- Custer and the No. 00 team have been a force to be reckoned with at the previous seven road-course races this season. He won two of those seven starts and earned top-10 finishes five times. Custer won on June 3 at Portland (Ore.) International Raceway in his first start at the track and on July 1 in the inaugural Chicago Street Race. In his Xfinity Series career, Custer has raced a total of 22 road-course races. Of those, he’s earned 16 10-top finishes. He and the team hope to keep the road-course success going as the Round of 12 comes to a close.
- In honor of October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Custer’s No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang will pay tribute Diana Falsettti, a double breast cancer survivor, by displaying her name above the passenger side window. Falsetti’s son, Anthony “Pockets” Arnold, works as a front suspension mechanic at Stewart-Haas Racing for both the Cup Series and the Xfinity Series cars.
Riley Herbst Notes of Interest
- Riley Herbst and the No. 98 Monster Energy team head into Saturday’s Drive for the Cure 250 on the Charlotte Roval refreshed from a much-needed off weekend for the Xfinity Series competitors. While the team enjoyed the off weekend, Herbst made use of the opportunity to gain more experience by hopping behind the wheel of the No. 36 Beast Unleashed White Haze Ford Mustang for Front Row Motorsports in last Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series YellaWood 500 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. It was his second time driving the No. 36 Ford Mustang after piloting it in the Cup Series regular season-finale at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway. Herbst qualified an impressive sixth at Talladega after being the fastest in the first of Saturday’s two rounds of qualifying. On race day, he stayed in the top-10 for the opening laps before dropping back in the pack to try and avoid mayhem. Later, Herbst achieved a career milestone when he led his first laps in the Cup Series – leading five times for a total of 10 laps. After avoiding multiple incidents in the final stage, Herbst was running third on a restart with 13 laps to go. As the field came to the checkered flag, he was pushing SHR’s Kevin Harvick toward the lead, but contact from behind caused Herbst to spin as the field crossed the finish line. He was able to salvage a Cup Series career-best ninth-place finish. He opened the season in February with a 10th-place finish in his Cup Series debut during the 65th running of the Daytona 500. It gave Herbst top-10s in each of his NASCAR national series debuts. He was sixth in his first Xfinity Series appearance in June 2018 at Iowa Speedway in Newton, eighth in his NASCAR Truck Series debut, also in June 2018, at Gateway International Raceway near St. Louis, and seventh in his first ARCA Menards Series start in April 2017 at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway.
- The Drive for the Cure 250 will be Herbst’s fourth career Xfinity Series start on the Charlotte Roval. Herbst had a strong outing in his first start there in 2020 during a torrential downpour. He ran up front and led seven laps en route to a 12th-place finish, best among that year’s rookie class. In October 2021, Herbst started ninth and was holding his position in the top-10 during the final stage before a suspension issue ended his race seven laps from the finish. Last October, Herbst started 11th and led a lap before an accident ended his bid five laps from the finish.
- Herbst is driving for the team that knows how to win on the Roval. SHR’s No. 98 team won the inaugural Xfinity Series race there in Sept. 2018 with driver Chase Briscoe. It was Briscoe’s first career Xfinity Series victory. He led twice for 33 laps to beat Justin Marks by 1.478 seconds.
Cole Custer, Driver of the No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang
Your solid finishes in the first two playoff races clinched your spot in the Round of 8 as you head to Saturday’s Round of 12 finale on the unpredictable Charlotte Roval. How are you approaching this weekend, knowing that you don’t have to focus on the points situation?
“We’re going there to win, now. The points are off the table, so we can just focus on winning at Charlotte. I honestly think we’ll have a good shot at parking our No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang in victory lane. The Roval has been good to us in the past. We knew that to make it to the Round of 8, we would have to put together a couple of races with speed and no mistakes. We did exactly that and were able to lock ourselves in early. It takes a lot of the pressure off as we head into this final race of the round. I’m proud of this team and hope we can keep this going into the next round.”
You’ve had solid runs on the Charlotte Roval in your previous starts there, earning back-to-back top-10s in 2018 and 2019. Do you feel like this is a solid track for you and the team, and what are your thoughts heading into the weekend?
“I think the Roval has been a good track for us throughout my career at Stewart-Haas Racing. On top of that, our road-course cars have been really good this year, and we even scored two victories with these cars this season. Hopefully, we keep that going and take that to the Roval this weekend. I think it’ll be a strong race for us, especially since we’re not watching the points. We just need to have a fast car and not make mistakes to keep outselves in the game at the end.”
Riley Herbst, Driver of the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang
You spent your Xfinity Series off weekend behind the wheel of a NASCAR Cup Series car last weekend at Talladega. How does driving in that series help you as a young driver, and is there anything that can translate to the Xfinity Series?
“It helps with overall experience and just showing everyone what we can do. Not much translates over from the Xfinity cars to the Cup cars anymore, so it’s about getting the seat time as a young driver. I came into NASCAR at a time when we didn’t really have a ton of practice because of the pandemic, so it really does help me understand some of these bigger tracks. The superspeedways have always been some of my favorite tracks, so to be able to get extra seat time is a plus, and it helps showcase what I can do in the NextGen car, as well. It’s all positives when you’re able to drive the Cup Series cars.”
The Charlotte Roval has been a wild card for you in the past, but you’ve also never been in this situation where you don’t have to worry about the points situation. How are you approaching this weekend, where you can just focus on bringing a fast racecar and making the moves for a win?
“To be honest, this is one track that I haven’t been able to wrap my head around. It’s not that we haven’t run decent there in the past, but I think I was just at a disadvantage because I never had practice on this track, and I was never able to lay down laps outside of the simulator until it was race time. Then the past two years, we’ve just had such bad luck. It’s nice to know that we’re not watching this playoff bubble this year and we can just focus on getting the car better for the future, but it’s also such a difficult track. It’s unique, but I’ve been leaning on Cole (Custer) a lot to try and see what he’s done differently. Hopefully, we can have a strong weekend as a team.”
