Race Winner: Austin Hill of Richard Childress Racing (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Winner: Josh Berry of JR Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 2 Winner: Austin Hill of Richard Childress Racing (Chevrolet)
Overview:
Riley Herbst finished ninth in the Alsco Uniforms 250 NASCAR Xfinity Series race Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The driver of the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing started eighth in the 163-lap race around the 1.54-mile oval and battled for the lead with fellow Monster Energy driver Ty Gibbs at the start of the final stage on lap 87. Contact sent Gibbs scraping along the outside retaining wall while Herbst dropped back to eighth. Herbst maintained his spot among the top-10 until the race’s final restart on lap 116 when he got hung in the bottom lane and fell to 15th. Undeterred, Herbst used the remainder of the race to climb back into the top-10 where he ultimately finished ninth to score his second straight top-10 at Atlanta.
Riley Herbst, driver of the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
“It was a rough day. Mistakes were made, but I’m still happy that we brought home a ninth-place finish. We had a car that could run up front, but I just lost the lead pack after getting shuffled back. We’ll learn and move onto New Hampshire next weekend.”
Notes:
● Herbst earned his 12th top-10 of the season and his third top-10 in five career NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at Atlanta.
● This was Herbst’s third consecutive top-10. He finished third June 25 at Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway and seventh last Saturday at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
● Austin Hill won the Alsco Uniforms 250 to score his second career Xfinity Series victory, his second of the season, and his first at Atlanta. His margin over second-place Josh Berry was .111 of a second.
● There were six caution periods for a total of 28 laps.
● Twenty-two of the 38 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
● AJ Allmendinger remains the championship leader after Atlanta with a 29-point advantage over second-place Ty Gibbs.
Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is the Crayon 200 on Saturday, July 16 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon. The race starts at 2:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by USA and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
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