Riley Herbst and the No. 98 Monster Energy team scored another top-10 finish by coming home ninth in the A-GAME 200 NASCAR Xfinity Series race Saturday at Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway. In the opening stage, Herbst was shuffled to the bottom lane with no help from behind, but showed strength by remaining inside the top-10. The Monster Energy driver continued to improve his running position in stage two by battling his way to sixth before the stage concluded. The No. 98 team found its way inside the top-five in the final stage before crew chief Richard Boswell made a strategy call to pit for fuel only during a lap-105 caution period. When racing resumed, Herbst was the only car with enough fuel to make it to the end if the race stayed green. Herbst continued to battle his way through the field, but the caution came out on lap 158 with Herbst in 13th. Forced to pit, Herbst restarted 13th and drove his way back inside the top-10 before the checkered flag waved. It was his seventh top-10 of the season and his fourth straight.
Riley Herbst, driver of the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
“I think we were more of a top-five car, for sure. We just lost track position there in the first stage and then got it back by passing some good cars in the second stage. Then we made a strategy call to try to win the race and it just didn’t pan out for us. It was a smart call. It was the right call. It just didn’t break our way and we had to fight our way back to ninth from there.”
Notes:
● Herbst earned his seventh top-10 of the season and his third top-10 in five career NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at Dover.
● This was Herbst’s fourth straight top-10. He finished fifth April 2 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway, sixth April 8 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway and seventh last Saturday at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.
● Herbst finished ninth in Stage 1 to earn two bonus points and sixth in Stage 2 to earn five more bonus points.
● Josh Berry won the A-GAME 200 to score his third career Xfinity Series victory, his first of the season and his first at Dover. His margin over second-place Justin Allgaier was .604 of a second.
● There were five caution periods for a total of 56 laps.
● Only 17 of the 38 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
● AJ Allmendinger remains the championship leader after Dover with a 43-point advantage over second-place Ty Gibbs.
Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is the Mahindra ROXOR 200 on May 7 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway. The race starts at 1:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FS1 and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
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