DAYTONA BEACH, Fla: It was a good weekend for Riley Herbst at the “World Center of Racing.”
First, he started off another season of NASCAR Xfinity Series competition with a strong sixth-place finish in Saturday afternoon’s Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner. 300 for Stewart-Haas Racing.
On Sunday, he made his NASCAR Cup Series debut for Rick Ware Racing and withstood the longest Daytona 500 in history to earn a 10th place finish in his No. 15 Sunny D Ford Mustang.
Herbst’s race did not start the strongest. After hovering in the lead draft for much of the early stages of the race, the Las Vegas, Nev. native suffered a setback under green flag conditions when entering pit road, a near complete spin out forced him to miss the commitment line, not to mention to be handed a speeding penalty while trying to recover from the misfortunate.
The Lap 40 mistake eventually caused Herbst to go a lap down to the leaders, but thanks to a wave around and being the beneficiary of the free pass during the fourth caution of the race for debris in Turn 2 on Lap 140, Herbst was able to utilize the remaining 72 laps that included two restarts in overtime to withstand a last lap accident entering Turn 1 and cling to a 10th place finish and the fourth Ford Mustang in the top-10 for the “Great American Race.”
“It was long and a lot of riding, not really racing,” admitted Herbst after the race. “I was kind of biding my time and trying to get experience. To finish top-10 was really cool. I am thankful for the opportunity to be here in the Cup Series and really happy with the finish in our first 500.”
Rick Ware Racing had a solid opening to their 2023 Cup Series season. In addition to Herbst finishing 10th, full-time driver Cody Ware finished 14th in his No. 51 Ford Mustang entry.
Herbst will return to the NASCAR Cup Series in April where he’ll pilot the No. 15 Ford Mustang in the April 23 race at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01 or email: [email protected]
