Race Winner: Riley Herbst of Stewart-Haas Racing (Ford)
Stage 1 Winner: Cole Custer of Stewart-Haas Racing (Ford)
Stage 2 Winner: Riley Herbst of Stewart-Haas Racing (Ford)
SHR Race Finish:
● Riley Herbst (Started 8th / Finished 1st, Running, completed 201 of 201 laps)
● Cole Custer (Started 2nd / Finished 3rd, Running, completed 201 of 201 laps)
SHR Points:
● Cole Custer (4th with 3,071 points, 15 points above the top-four cutoff)
● Riley Herbst (13th with 790 points)
Victory Notes:
● Herbst’s victory at Las Vegas marked SHR’s 24th NASCAR Xfinity Series victory, its third of the season, and its third at Las Vegas.
● This was SHR’s 100th overall victory (69 point-paying NASCAR Cup Series wins, six non-point-paying NASCAR Cup Series wins, 24 NASCAR Xfinity Series wins and one ARCA Menards Series West win)
● This was Herbst’s first career NASCAR Xfinity Series victory and it comes in his third season with SHR.
SHR Notes:
● Herbst earned his first victory of the season and his first victory in nine career Xfinity Series starts at Las Vegas.
● This is Herbst’s second straight top-five. He finished fourth last Saturday at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval.
● This is Herbst’s second straight top-10 at Las Vegas. He finished eighth when the series’ visited in March.
● Herbst’s win bettered his previous best finish at Las Vegas – eighth, earned in March.
● Herbst finished 10th in Stage 1 to earn one bonus point and won Stage 2 to earn 10 more bonus points.
● Herbst led three times for 103 laps – his first laps led at Las Vegas.
● Custer earned his 13th top-five of the season and his third top-five in seven career Xfinity Series starts at Las Vegas.
● This was Custer’s seventh straight top-12 at Las Vegas. He finished 12th when the series’ last visited in March. He has never finished outside the top-12 at Las Vegas.
● This was Custer’s second straight top-five. He finished fourth on Sept. 15 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, sixth Sept. 23 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, and second last weekend at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval.
● Custer’s third-place finish equaled his previous best finish at Las Vegas – third, earned in September 2018.
● Custer won Stage 1 to earn 10 bonus points and one playoff points. He finished second in Stage 2 to earn nine more bonus points.
● Custer led three times for 62 laps to increase his laps-led total at Las Vegas to 116.
Race Notes:
● Herbst won the Alsco Uniforms 302 to score his first career Xfinity Series victory in 139 career starts. His margin over second-place John Hunter Nemechek was 14.959 seconds.
● There were five caution periods for a total of 26 laps.
● Only 10 of the 38 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
Sound Bites:
“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 going 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 No. 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.” – Riley Herbst, driver of the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang
“It was a great day. Our guys did a great job winning that first stage and then getting second in the second stage. We had a lot of speed in our No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang. Honestly, we were really loose on the long runs. We thought the track would come to us, but it never did. The No. 98 was just so fast, and I don’t know if anyone had anything for him. Our No. 00 team has worked so hard all year, so to have this great run today and make it above the cutoff line just means so much more. Can’t wait to get to Homestead.” – Cole Custer, driver of the No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang
Next Up:
The next event on the Xfinity Series schedule is the Contender Boats 300 on Saturday, Oct. 21 at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway. It is the fifth race of the Xfinity Series playoffs and the second race of the Round of 8. The race begins at 3 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by USA and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
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