Kentucky Speedway was good to Joe Gibbs Racing’s Riley Herbst who won back-to-back Sunoco Rookie of the Race awards for finishing runner-up Thursday night (a career-best finish) and then 10th on Friday night. As a result, Herbst leap-frogged Ryan Sieg in the standings and is now in 10th, 69 points up on fellow Sunoco rookie Myatt Snider in 13th the first spot outside the Playoff cutoff.
The 21-year old is second in the NASCAR Xfinity Series Sunoco Rookie of the Year standings, 116 points back from Harrison Burton, who is currently in the rookie standings lead. In 15 starts this season, Herbst has put up two top fives and eight top 10s.
This will be Herbst’s series track debut at Texas Motor Speedway this weekend. Of the six rookies this season, Herbst’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Harrison Burton is the only one with previous Xfinity Series experience at the 1.5-mile track – he made his series track debut last November he started second and finished seventh.
Sunoco Rookie of the Year | |
Rookies | Points |
Harrison Burton | 492 |
Riley Herbst | 376 |
Jesse Little | 274 |
Joe Graf Jr. | 202 |
Myatt Snider | 155 |
Kody Vanderwal | 90 |