Racing on the oval at Indianapolis is always special, but a three-wide battle for the win on the last lap is a cherry on top. And it was Riley Herbst who came out of it with a beaming smile and the checkered flag for his second career Xfinity win.
Unlike NASCAR’s premier Cup Series cars racing on Sunday, the Xfinity cars featured the superspeedway package at Indy, which limited the horsepower. While there were questions going in about what the racing might look like, the result certainly exceeded any expectations. Drivers had to work to complete passes but could use the long straights to their advantage to reel competitors in, in a similar style of racing to IndyCars in the 500.
That was exemplified by the racing in the last lap. After chasing his teammate Cole Custer down, Riley Herbst moved him up in Turn 4 to pass him coming to the white flag, but in so doing opened the door for a run by the third-place car of Aric Almirola just behind to get a run and pass them both in a three-wide move.
Herbst stayed collected and hit his marks through the final lap to get to Almirola’s bumper in Turn 3 and, with a bit of contact in Turn 4 that forced Herbst to save a near-sideways car, made the pass and got the win.
“It was a good fight,” Herbst said, explaining that he thought he had Custer clear before his spotter informed him that he was on the bottom of a three wide battle: “I was like ‘oh, this is going to be tough.’ And then I just continued to work, continued to work, and continued to work.
“It’s been a pretty tough week on me mentally, to be honest. Proud of these guys, proud of everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing, obviously with the news of us shutting down, these guys could’ve given up on me and gone to different teams, but they stuck behind me and Cole, and now back-to-back wins for Stewart-Haas Racing,” he added. “I’m going to go drink beer and turn my phone off for three weeks.”
Where Herbst showed the most emotion was in describing the track itself. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is one of the oldest racetracks in the world and certainly one of the most famous, and to get his second win here after breaking through at his home track of Las Vegas Motor Speedway last season was incredibly special for the driver.
“This is Indianapolis, this is the most famous racetrack in the world,” Herbst gushed. “This is hallowed ground, honestly. Every person in the world wants to race here, and I won here.”
Cole Custer ultimately finished second behind his teammate, also getting by Almirola in an intense fight in the final turn of the race. While Custer had a win in hand to lock into the Playoffs – scored just the week prior at Pocono – he explained that he did not go easy by any means.
“I mean, you could see us beating doors down the frontstretch,” he pointed out. “You are going to do everything it takes to win Indy. I was doing everything I could to get this thing to turn. I needed one less lap.”
Custer led 47 of the 100 laps, 17 more than his teammate, including those late in the race. However, he explained that being the leader was actually more difficult.
“I felt like it was kind of a disadvantage to lead all day,” Custer said. “If you were in second, you would get your car looser which would save your tires throughout a run. Whereas if you were leading you would just get so tight after 15 laps.”
Though the result may have been disappointing for him, it was excellent for the team, which now has both cars locked into the Playoffs and back-to-back winners’ trophies.
“What an awesome day for SHR,” Custer recognized. “Two cars at the front all day. We qualified 1-2 and finished 1-2, an unbelievable day for SHR. I hope we keep this rolling.”
Aric Almirola, piloting the No. 20 car in a part-time appearance for Joe Gibbs Racing, ultimately crossed the line in third. He was gracious in defeat, driving next to Herbst on the cool-down lap to express his congratulations, and acknowledged that his car just wasn’t good enough.
“The Stewart-Haas cars were the class of the field all weekend,” Almirola acknowledged. “I thought that was my chance to try, when they got side-by-side, and make something happen. I thought it was going to work out. I thought I was going to get clean air and was going to be okay, but Riley’s car was so good, and he got to my left rear and got me tight.
“Hats off to those guys, they did a great job,” he concluded. “Proud of the effort and dang, that hurts.”
Shane van Gisbergen scored his second-ever top-five finish on an oval with his fourth-place result. He chose to pit on the final caution from fifth and restarted with eleven laps to go on fresh tires to go which he used to full advantage to climb from outside the top ten to the lead battle.
“That was awesome. The WeatherTech Camaro was really good, and at the start I was still learning, probably I’m a bit too conservative, and I just built up, built up, and as the car got better so did I. This Xfinity Series is so fun, the way the cars move around and the way we were all sliding, I had a blast.
“At the end we were running fifth,” he explained of the decision to pit, “and it was really cool, and we decided to take tires, and the restarts were heaven coming back through. I had a blast,” he reiterated.
Sheldon Creed rounded out the top five, the second driver who pitted for fresh tires in the late caution behind SVG. Austin Hill, Daniel Dye, AJ Allmendinger, Justin Allgaier, and Carson Kvapil all earned top-ten finishes.
The race was shaped by two major crashes. The first came on just the second lap when Sam Mayer spun by himself while battling underneath the No. 16 of AJ Allmendinger. He ended up sideways in front of the field, and the eventual wreck involved 12 cars in some form, including Mayer and Allmendinger, Josh Berry, Sammy Smith, Jesse Love, Jeremy Clements, Parker Retzlaff, Connor Daly, Jeb Burton, Kyle Sieg, Joe Graf Jr, and Chandler Smith.
The second occurred on lap 85 and brought out the decisive final caution which bunched up the field and allowed some contenders to pit for tires. While battling Daniel Dye in the No. 10, Anthony Alfredo was pushed out of the groove and washed into the wall. As he slowed and moved down the track, Kyle Sieg and Parker Retzlaff came up behind him. Sieg saw him and was able to get out of the way, but Retzlaff was tucked in behind in the draft and was unable to react in time when his viewpoint was opened up. Josh Williams in the Kaulig Racing No. 11 was also involved.
The Xfinity Series returns at Michigan International Speedway on August 17th, after the Olympic break.
