Riley Herbst finally triumphant in home race

After 139 starts over five years, Riley Herbst can finally call himself a NASCAR Xfinity Series race winner. To make it even sweeter, he finally knocked that milestone at his home track Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Herbst, whose family is an off-road racing and Las Vegas staple, dominated Saturday’s Alsco Uniforms 302 as he led 103 of 201 laps. He and Stewart-Haas Racing team-mate Cole Custer each won a stage before combining to lead all but one lap in Stage #3; Kyle Sieg, who races for ally RSS Racing, led the only other lap during green-flag pit stops before Herbst reclaimed it.

The dominant performance by SHR culminated in Herbst securing their 100th victory across all three national series. His run was such a masterful performance that he beat second-placed John Hunter Nemechek by nearly fifteen seconds.

The victory also comes just days after signing a contract extension with SHR for the 2024 season.

“I love this town. I love this team,” began Herbst. “Davin Restivo (crew chief) believes in me, but I have to give a big shout out to Richard Boswell (SHR’s Xfinity director) because I wouldn’t be the person I am or the race car driver without him. I can’t thank Monster Energy enough: Mitch Covington (senior vice president of sports marketing), Dave Gowan, everybody said I couldn’t do it and those two people stuck behind my my whole career. You don’t even know what this means and what this takes off my chest. I can’t believe it. I love you, Las Vegas.

“I’ve been working on myself and everything I can control. I knew all I could do is all I could do and if there was a caution, there was a caution and we were gonna race them straight up, but oh my goodness. This year was such a failure that we didn’t make the playoffs. It’s so embarrassing to be in a car like this that doesn’t make the playoffs and walk in the garage each week with your head down, but Davin Restivo and all these guys on the #98 team told me to keep my head up and we’re going to go win a race and that’s what we did. I can’t fathom it. I can’t thank Monster Energy enough. I can’t thank my grandfather and mom and dad enough. I’m so emotional, but everybody here at Las Vegas, I love you guys. This is my home. I was born and raised here, so let’s go party and we’re going to celebrate tonight.”

After missing the playoffs, Herbst got to spoil the Round of 8 opener. Playoff drivers occupied second through seventh, with Sheldon Creed and Sammy Smith as stragglers as they finished outside the top ten.

The third stage ran caution-free, a contrast to the massive accident on lap 55 that eliminated Anthony Alfredo, Kaz Grala, Kyle Weatherman, and Josh Williams and resulted in an eight-and-a-half-minute red flag.

Ryan Reed scored a top-twenty finish in his first Xfinity Series race since 2018. He was driving a #66 prepared by Alpha Prime Racing but fielded under the MBM Motorsports banner.

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	8	98	Riley Herbst	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	201	Running
2	38	20	John Hunter Nemechek	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	201	Running
3	2	00	Cole Custer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	201	Running
4	4	16	Chandler Smith	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	201	Running
5	14	1	Sam Mayer	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	201	Running
6	7	7	Justin Allgaier	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	201	Running
7	10	21	Austin Hill	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	201	Running
8	13	9	Brandon Jones	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	201	Running
9	6	10	Daniel Hemric^	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	201	Running
10	9	11	Layne Riggs	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	201	Running
11	19	19	Myatt Snider	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	200	Running
12	1	8	Josh Berry	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
13	11	48	Parker Kligerman	Big Machine Racing Team	Chevrolet	200	Running
14	5	31	Parker Retzlaff	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
15	15	2	Sheldon Creed	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
16	17	39	Ryan Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	199	Running
17	3	18	Sammy Smith	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	199	Running
18	24	29	Kyle Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	199	Running
19	28	24	Connor Mosack	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	199	Running
20	25	66	Ryan Reed	MBM Motorsports	Chevrolet	198	Running
21	23	44	Daniel Dye*	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	198	Running
22	18	27	Jeb Burton	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	197	Running
23	35	45	Rajah Caruth*	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	197	Running
24	27	25	Brett Moffitt	AM Racing	Ford	197	Running
25	34	6	Brennan Poole	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	197	Running
26	29	08	Stefan Parsons	SS-Green Light Racing	Chevrolet	197	Running
27	32	43	Ryan Ellis	Alpha Prime Racing	Ford	197	Running
28	31	02	Blaine Perkins	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	195	Running
29	37	28	C.J. McLaughlin	RSS Racing	Ford	194	Running
30	16	51	Jeremy Clements	Jeremy Clements Racing	Chevrolet	193	Running
31	21	74	Dawson Cram	CHK Racing	Chevrolet	193	Running
32	36	35	Joey Gase	Emerling-Gase Motorsports	Toyota	193	Running
33	26	92	Josh Williams	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	56	Accident
34	20	78	Anthony Alfredo	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	54	Accident
35	22	26	Kaz Grala	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	53	Accident
36	12	91	Kyle Weatherman	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	53	Accident
37	30	38	Joe Graf Jr.	RSS Racing	Ford	12	Accident
38	33	53	Patrick Emerling	Emerling-Gase Motorsports	Chevrolet	3	Accident
DNQ		4	Garrett Smithley	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet
DNQ		07	Gray Gaulding	SS-Green Light Racing	Chevrolet

Bold – Currently in playoffs
^ – Currently in owner playoffs
Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for points