Herbst looking for more at Homestead-Miami

Just how badly did Stewart-Hass Racing driver Riley Herbst want to win his first NASCAR Xfinity Series race? Last July, on the eve of the Chicago Street Course race, Herbst, still searching for his first career Xfinity Series race after a five-year run in the division, said to this writer:

“I need that race win as bad as I need oxygen.”

Herbst got the hit of the oxygen he needed last weekend when he led 103 of 201 laps to win the Xfinity Series race at his hometown Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

“I finally got some life,” said Herbst on Friday afternoon from Homestead-Miami Speedway. “I needed the win to live. I’m just so happy. I can’t stop smiling. This has been a dream come true and I’m just so excited.

“It’s a feeling that has been a long time coming, “added the 24 year-old driver of the No. 98 SHR Monster Energy Ford Mustang. “I’m excited to get to the track. I’m excited to hop in my race car and try to go do it again and go to battle.”

Almost immediately after Herbst took the checkered flag in Las Vegas, he was greeted by an an outpouring of congratulatory social media.

“I didn’t notice it at first, but after a few people told me about it, I started to look around,” he said. “There was definitely a good amount of outreach and everybody at Monster Energy and my other sponsors were so pumped-up and happy. It was just cool that everybody was relieved and just super-excited for me.”

So did the first victory feel as good as he’d envisioned?

“Way better than I expected, honestly,” he said. “It was the biggest weight off my shoulders that I’ve ever could have imagined. The win was a really good relief.

“It was even better than I thought it would be. I had all my family and all my friends and all my best childhood friends there with me in victory lane. We celebrated the win and then we went to dinner. It was truly just a storybook day. I’m very, very grateful for the opportunity.

“What s funny is that I did not feel anything different before the race weekend, but in practice on Friday I knew we had a really good car. However, we’ve had a lot of really good cars this year and I just wasn’t able to capitalize. On Saturday in Las Vegas I was able to put everything together and capitalize, so it was just everything coming together at the right time and it was really awesome.

“We actually had to start last. We qualified eighth and had to start last, so we picked them off one at a time. I just tried to be disciplined and just do my job to the best of my abilities and ultimately we were able to win. It was a really good feeling.

“This was a big race because NASCAR could lock everybody into Phoenix and the championship race so everybody brought the best car off the shelf. We whipped them pretty good. It was a really good feeling to have that happen.”

Somewhat outshined by Herbst’s first win was the announcement that came down two days before Vegas that he’ll be back with SHR in the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series .

“Yeah, that’s good to have,” he said. “Hopefully in the last three races of this year we can clean up the small stuff and we’ll be rolling to Daytona next year in February as a favorite, and we can go dominate all next year. It’s really good at SHR. A relationship has to work both ways, so I feel like I’ve found a place that respects me and I respect them and it has just been going really well.”

So now comes Saturday afternoon at Homestead-Miami. How does he plan to approach things?

“It’s going to be fun,” he said. “It’s a very difficult racetrack to race, but I’m going to approach it the same way I approached last weekend’s race. I’m just going to go there and give my best effort and I’ll let the race come to me.”

That’s followed by Martinsville – “an ‘elbows-up’ type of racetrack,” according to Herbst – before the finale at Phoenix.

“I love Phoenix,” said Herbst. “We ran really well there in the springtime and finished fourth. Hopefully we can go back there in a few weeks and repeat, if not a few spots better…”