STEWART-HAAS RACING
NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship
Date: Nov. 9, 2024
Event: NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship (Round 33 of 33)
Series: NASCAR Xfinity Series
Location: Phoenix Raceway (1-mile oval)
Format: 200 laps, broken into three stages (45 laps/45 laps/110 laps)
Note: Race extended 13 laps past its scheduled 200-lap distance due to a green-white-checkered finish.
Race Winner: Riley Herbst of Stewart-Haas Racing (Ford)
Stage 1 Winner: Riley Herbst of Stewart-Haas Racing (Ford)
Stage 2 Winner: Riley Herbst of Stewart-Haas Racing (Ford)
SHR Race Finish:
● Riley Herbst (Started 3rd / Finished 1st, Running, completed 213 of 213 laps)
● Cole Custer (Started 7th / Finished 8th, Running, completed 213 of 213 laps)
SHR Points:
● Cole Custer (2nd with 4,029 points)
● Riley Herbst (7th with 2,254 points)
Final Points Standings:
- Justin Allgaier (4,035 points)
- Cole Custer (4,029 points)
- AJ Allmendinger (4,028 points)
- Austin Hill (4,027 points)
Victory Notes:
● Herbst earned his third career NASCAR Xfinity Series win, his second of the season and his first win in 11 career Xfinity Series starts at Phoenix. It comes in his fourth season with Stewart-Haas.
● This was SHR’s 105th overall victory (70 points-paying NASCAR Cup Series wins, six non-points-paying NASCAR Cup Series wins, 29 Xfinity Series wins and one ARCA Menards Series West win)
SHR Notes:
● This was Herbst’s third straight top-11 finish. He finished seventh Oct. 19 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, sixth Oct. 26 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and 11th last Saturday at Martinsville.
● Since joining Stewart-Haas in 2021, Herbst has only finished outside the top-10 twice at Phoenix.
● Herbst’s victory bettered his previous best finish at Phoenix – fourth, earned in both 2021 races and both 2023 races.
● Herbst won Stage 1 to earn 10 bonus points and one playoff point. He also won Stage 2 to earn 10 more bonus points and an additional playoff point.
● Herbst led seven times for 167 laps – his first laps led at Phoenix.
● Custer earned his 23rd top-10 of the season and his eighth top-10 in 10 career NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at Phoenix.
● Custer has never finished outside of the top-21 at Phoenix in the Xfinity Series.
● This was Custer’s fourth consecutive top-10 finish. He finished eighth Oct. 19 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, second Oct. 26 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and fourth last Saturday at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.
● This was Custer’s third straight top-10 at Phoenix. He won last November and finished fifth in March.
● Custer finished seventh in Stage 1 to earn four bonus points and fifth in Stage 2 to earn six more bonus points.
● Custer led twice for seven laps increasing his laps led total at Phoenix to 208.
Race Notes:
● Herbst’s margin of victory over second-place Justin Allgaier was .246 of a second.
● There were seven caution periods for a total of 53 laps.
● Twenty-seven of the 38 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
● Allgaier won the NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship with his second-place finish at Phoenix.
Sound Bites:
“I knew we were going to have a fast racecar. These guys have been working on this Phoenix car as if we were in the playoffs. I knew we were going to be really fast. It has been a really tough week this past week at the shop and a lot of really emotional people. This place has been home for a lot of people for a long time, including myself, and it has built me into who I am the last four years. I am grateful to every man and woman at Stewart-Haas Racing. They gave me a really fast car today and we capitalized on it. I can’t thank Monster Energy enough and everyone on the 98 team. They deserve to win. That is a championship-caliber team and crew chief. I wish we could have cleaned some stuff up over last summer, but I am proud of these guys and we will see what next year has. I’ve said it multiple times, I knew I could be here. I knew I could do this. Everything in life is just hard work and I definitely didn’t start out how I wanted to. It was embarrassing there for a few years and I was just really, really struggling, but I got around really good people. Tony Stewart, Richard Boswell, Davin Restivo, Kevin Harvick and they told me to get to work and they told me what I needed to work on and we did that. Now, we’re starting to see the fruits of our labor.” –Riley Herbst, driver of the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang Dark Horse
“First of all, I just want to congratulate Justin (Allgaier). That’s a long time coming for him. He’s a deserving champion, for sure. What it came down to for us was that restart when the 21 stayed out on older tires. Honestly, it just came down to who you were behind. He made his car really wide, very hard to get by, which is his right. We’re all going for a championship, but that ended up screwing us worse than it did the 7, and the 7 was able to slip by. That’s what sucks. I really wanted to win this championship for SHR and finish it out strong, but it just wasn’t meant to be. It just sucks that it comes down to tire strategies and situational restarts and things like that, but the 7 car was great all day. I mean, they definitely had a fast car, but I can’t say enough about our team. JT and all these guys did a great job all year – Haas Automation, Andy’s Frozen Custard, Ford Performance. We’ll keep digging. This definitely stings because we were so close, but we’ll move on. I don’t know if I would say we were a clear favorite. I think us and the 7 were really equal. They just had some mistakes in the middle of the race, but at the end of the day it came down to that restart with the 21 and some guys staying out on older tires. We just got bottlenecked behind them, and the 7 was able to slip by. I have to say congratulations to Justin and all those guys. They definitely deserve it. Justin is a very deserving champion. He’s been working hard at this for a long time and I’m happy that he finally got it. It definitely stings for our team. I hate that it comes down to tire strategies and things like that, but it was a great race for us. We executed a great race, but it just didn’t work out. Everybody was racing hard, but it just sucks to run second. There have been a lot of memories with Stewart-Haas Racing and we just wanted to end it with on a win so bad. We got Riley a win, so that’s awesome to end it with that. I really wanted that championship, but it just wasn’t meant to be.” –Cole Custer, driver of the No. 00 Andy’s Frozen Custard/Haas Automation Ford Mustang Dark Horse
