RILEY HERBST, No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT ARE THE EMOTIONS COMING BACK HERE THIS WEEKEND AFTER WINNING A YEAR AGO? “It’s always special to come back home, but I would say this weekend is obviously a little bit bittersweet for sure. As you mentioned, I feel like we’ll have really good pace this weekend and I would be surprised if we’re not in the top three coming to the checkered flag tomorrow. With us not being in this Round of 8 it’s kind of bittersweet with that being said, but it’s always exciting to get back here to Las Vegas. I love this racetrack and we’ve had pretty good pace here the last two years, so hopefully it continues and I think it will.”
HOW DO YOU LOOK AT WHAT HAPPENED LAST WEEK AND HOW TO YOU RESET? “I don’t know. It boils down to that we weren’t fast enough. There’s no reason why we should have been racing in 15th and racing who we were racing, but at the end of the day, even if we didn’t get in that wreck I’ve said publicly now that it was gonna be tough for us to transfer just with the bottom four running one, two, three and four at one point during the race. I thought plus-20 was enough going into the Roval, but ultimately it wasn’t so it’s frustrating. Last year, we won here and finished second at Homestead and fourth at Martinsville and fourth at Phoenix, so we’ll try to do that again this year and just win some trophies, I guess.”
HOW MUCH OF A CHALLENGE IS THAT FOR YOU WITH WHAT HAPPENED LAST WEEK? “I think last week the mindset was just a lot of anger, just like that gimmick of a racetrack at the Roval and then focusing on this round, which is so much better of a round for us with two mile-and-a-halves and a short track. Now the outlook is more positive and just looking to win back-to-back in my hometown and have another solid finish at Miami and another solid finish at Martinsville and kind of end this chapter of my life with Stewart-Haas Racing on a high note and try to go out with some wins.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL YOU’VE GROWN AT HANDLING ADVERSITY LIKE LAST WEEK? “I would say it’s evolved greatly over the last few years and, honestly, just over the past year. I think it’s OK for everybody to go through different types of emotions and last Saturday I was definitely, like I said, filled with anger and disappointment for not making this Round of 8, where I have so much confidence coming into these next three racetracks, but at the end of the day I woke up on Monday and I just continued to move forward. It’s not really the end of the world. Missing the Round of 8 is not gonna damper what’s gonna happen to me next year, so I kind of had to shift my mindset to that and just go out and try to do the best I can this weekend at home and the next three races after that.”
WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO YOU NEXT YEAR? HAVE YOU BEEN HELD UP WITH THE CHARTER SITUATION? “I think there’s a lot of things holding back the dominoes to fall and I’m not the first one to initiate the fall of the dominoes, so I’ll leave it at that. Hopefully, everything will sort itself out here shortly, but I don’t see anything happening in the meantime.”
SO IF YOU ARE GOING INTO A CUP RIDE, WHICH WE’RE EXPECTING TO HEAR SOMETHING AT SOME POINT, HOW HAVE YOU PREPARED TO GET TO THAT POINT IN YOUR CAREER? “I think that’s a lot of speculation.”
IF SO, THOUGH, WHAT STEPS HAVE YOU TAKEN FROM A PROFESSIONAL STANDPOINT TO PREPARE YOURSELF IF THAT’S THE NEXT STEP IN YOUR CAREER? “Like I said, if it comes to that, we’ll think of the steps we’ve taken at that announcement at a later date. Right now, there’s a lot of moving pieces. Nothing is by any means set, so I don’t know what steps I’ve taken or what steps I’ve not taken. We’re just kind of focusing on these next four races and trying to go out on top to end Stewart-Haas Racing and that chapter where I’m at now. I feel like I’ve grown a bunch over the last four years, I would say at the end of five years now, so we’ll see what happens, but nothing in the short time, for sure.”
WHO HAVE YOU LEANED ON FOR A MENTOR THE LAST COUPLE OF SEASONS? “I think I’ve mentioned it a lot, but the biggest person would probably be Kevin Harvick. He’s helped me tremendously. I’ve obviously leaned on my past crew chief, Richard Boswell, and my current crew chief, Davin Restivo, quite a bit and I think they’ve all helped me take gigantic steps personally and professionally in my racing career, so I’m very thankful to them.”
TAKE ME THROUGH THE WIN AT INDY AND HOW PIVOTAL WAS THAT AS FAR AS A TURNING POINT IN YOUR CAREER? “I think just the weight of Indy is bigger than anything. Indianapolis is such a historic racetrack and everybody’s love for motorsports takes them to Indianapolis and it’s just a special feeling when you walk in that place. On a personal level, it was just cool to get my second win. Everybody wanted to know when I was gonna win the first race, and then I won the first race here last year, and then that question was, ‘When are you gonna win the second one?’ So, I finally got that done and now I want to win a few more before my time with Stewart-Haas Racing is over and I think that’s achievable. It’s helped me tremendously going from one win to two wins and that’s just a lot of confidence for myself.”
