Riley Herbst Tag

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service FONTANA, Calif. – After the sun set on Auto Club Speedway, John Hunter Nemechek drove his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to victory in Sunday’s Production Alliance Group 300 in the final race at the 2.0-mile track. It wasn’t supposed to be that way. The NASCAR Xfinity Series drivers were scheduled to race on Saturday, leaving the speedway’s swan song to the NASCAR Cup Series on Sunday, but rain and snow—yes, snow in Southern California’s Inland Empire—forced postponement of the race until Sunday.Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – After Sam Mayer spun on the roof of his Chevrolet on the backstretch at Daytona International Speedway, trailing a shower of sparks, Austin Hill, Justin Allgaier and John Hunter Nemechek sat in their cars and waited. And after what must have seemed an eternity to the drivers, NASCAR reviewed video of the final lap of overtime and declared Hill the winner of his second straight season opener at the World Center of Racing in front of the largest crowd toRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Brad Keselowski is no stranger to the top of the leaderboard on a superspeedway and that’s exactly where he found himself in Saturday’s final practice session for the 65th running of the Daytona 500. Piloting his No. 6 RFK Racing Ford around the 2.5-mile track in 47.071 seconds, 191.201 mph, the 2012 NASCAR Cup Series champion staked his place at the top and would not be moved for the remainder of the 50-minute session. “We made some really good improvements,” Keselowski said.Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Ty Gibbs took no prisoners Saturday with a race-winning move that dramatically altered the composition of the NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship 4 field. On the final lap of the third attempt at overtime, Gibbs rammed soon-to-be-ex-teammate Brandon Jones so hard the contact buckled the hood of Gibbs No. 54 Toyota. The contact sent Jones, who had taken the lead on the previous lap, into the outside wall in Turns 1 and 2, and Gibbs had the lead when NASCAR called theRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Noah Gragson has led plenty of laps at Homestead-Miami Speedway with three Top-10 finishes in his four starts before this weekend. And Saturday night – at long last – Gragson earned the Xfinity Series winner’s trophy to go with all his statistical success at the South Florida track. The 23-year-old Las Vegas native led a dominating 127 of the 200 laps – at one point his No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevy was out front by more than 9-seconds. Ultimately it tookRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service FORT WORTH, Texas — Noah Gragson parked his No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet at the finish line, emerged through his car’s roof flap and raised his arms in triumph taking in the loud cheers from the Texas Motor Speedway grandstands as he celebrated a historic fourth consecutive NASCAR Xfinity Series victory Saturday afternoon in the Andy’s Frozen Custard 300. It was a series best and career-high seventh win on the season for the 24-year old Las Vegas native and automatically reserves his spot inRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service BRISTOL, Tenn.— Make it three in a row for Noah Gragson, who has built enormous momentum as the NASCAR Xfinity Series moves into its seven-race Playoff. On 90-lap older tires, Gragson held off Brandon Jones, the driver who will take his seat in the No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet next year, in a 20-lap green-flag run to the finish of Friday night’s Food City 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway. The victory was Gragson’s third straight in the series, his sixth of the season andRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service In the moments after claiming the checkered flag for the Sunoco Go Rewards 200 at the Glen Saturday afternoon, Kyle Larson smiled and conceded he was a bit fortunate. “I got lucky,’’ he told the USA Network television audience. Or perhaps more accurately, he was in the right place at the right time. Running third on a restart with five laps remaining in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at historic Watkins Glen (N.Y.)  International, he shot to the front when his Hendrick Motorsports teammateRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Taking control of the race in the final stage, Ty Gibbs sped to his NASCAR Xfinity Series-best fifth victory of the season in Saturday’s New Holland 250 at Michigan International Speedway. The tenor of the race changed markedly near the end of the second stage when pole winner Noah Gragson opted to stay on the track and compete for the stage win on the high-speed 2.0-mile track. Gibbs had pitted under caution on Lap 55 and inherited the lead when Gragson and others whoRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service SPEEDWAY, Ind. – The NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoff is still six races away, but AJ Allmendinger has already clinched one title. With his victory in Saturday’s Pennzoil 150 at the Brickyard, the driver of the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet is the undisputed King of the Road. Allmendinger was an irresistible force at the 2.439-mile, 14-turn Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course. He led 42 of the 62 laps and overcame a fraught 25-second pit stop that dropped him from the lead to 13th forRead More