As it always does, the Daytona 500 went right down to the bitter end last Sunday afternoon and Riley Herbst in the No. 35 Monster Energy Toyota was smack in the middle of the multi-car fray headed toward the checkered flag.
“We got all spread out wide down the back straightaway, and obviously I chose to go with the 45 Reddick,” Herbst said. “I pushed him, and he made that move on the 9 Elliott to go side-by-side, and I don’t know truly what happened. I went to pop three-wide to make it a photo finish top of turn three at the start/finish line, and it must have been a matter of inches.”
Herbst wound up finishing eighth. While preparing for Sunday’s Autotrader 400 at the high-speed 1.540-mile EchoPark Speedway, Herbst reflected on Daytona and looked forward to Atlanta
“I’m just in the shop and getting ready to head up to the simulator,” said Herbst from 23XI Racing’s Airspeed headquarters in Huntersville, N.C.. “Simulator time today will probably go three and a half hours. We’re on for a while. It’s good stuff. It helps me practice and helps me prepare for the next weekend. It gets us in the right mindset. We’re getting ready for Atlanta and we leave on Friday.”
Herbst ultimately finished a hard fought eighth in Sunday’s 68th annual running of the Daytona 500 and reflected on the frantic finish of the 200-lap race.
“It was close!” declared Herbst of the Daytona 500 finish. “I don’t know if you saw the ending, but we had a shot to win it and that’s all you can really ask for. Yeah, it’s a little bit of a bummer that we finished eighth when we had a shot to win coming off of Turn 4. Still a really solid result and I’m just proud of everybody’s effort.
“It was the final laps of the Daytona 500 and that’s what we’re all racing for. That’s the biggest trophy in the sport and the biggest paycheck, so we were working hard and pushing hard and taking every inch. Yeah, we put ourselves in a position to see the checkered flag first and ultimately we missed it by a few inches. It was a good effort and it’s just all about timing your runs and trying to make passes at the right time.”
Herbst elaborated on the torn and frayed final lap of the Daytona 500.
“Coming to the white flag I was in fifth place on the outside row. We were able to make our way through that wreck. Coming at Turn 2 we were in sixth place and we had a shot to win the race. I got hooked up with my teammate and we pushed him to the win. I pushed Reddick to the last second and I popped out and tried to win the race for myself and everybody on the No. 35 team.”
Herbst and Reddick lined up third and fourth on the final lap of the race to try and make a move through Turn 3 and Turn 4. Ultimately, Herbst moved to the top line of Daytona’s 31-degree banking, and in doing so, stalled Brad Keselowski’s momentum and initiated instant carnage of Kevlar, carbon fiber and epoxy dust.
“Yeah, Keselowski was upset, but I mean I just consider that speedway racing and that’s everybody desperate to try and win the Daytona 500. If the same things happened again, I would do the same thing again. Yeah, we were racing super-hard, and we were trying to win the biggest race in the sport.”
How was everybody on the 23XI Racing team after Herbst climbed out of the No. 35 Monster Energy Toyota?
“Everybody was pumped because we helped a teammate win the race,” explained Herbst. “I was a little dejected because I wanted to win the race. It just didn’t turn out the way that I wanted it, but I’m thankful that our teammate won. I’m thankful for everyone at 23XI Racing that we won the Daytona 500. I’m thankful we got a good result out of it and we can move onto Atlanta.
“And Tyler Reddick is such a great teammate. I’m so happy for him to win the race. He was just thankful for the push he got from me and I told him that I’d do it again no matter what. I’m just happy for him and his family and his whole team.”
And of Keselowski afterwards?
“Yeah, everybody’s got emotions,” said Herbst. “He was upset, but he hasn’t contacted me, so I don’t know if he’s that upset. I have not heard from him. We’ll just deal with it and move on to the next one next week and understand that it’s a long season and you’ve got to keep going.”
And Herbst will now move onto Atlanta, Georgia and Echopark Speedway and the Autotrader 400.
“Atlanta is, for lack of a better term, intense,” described Herbst. “It’s hairy. It’s a mile shorter than Daytona. All the runs happen faster and there is less time to take them. We’re always slide jobbing each another and it’s just a super-intense race for the whole 500 miles, which is pretty intense. It’s an extremely fast track and it’s just so mentally taxing, as well, because you’re always on go. There is no time to relax a little bit. Atlanta is fun, from the driver’s perspective and from the fans’ perspective, as well.”
Herbst feels confident in just what’s ahead of him.
“Yeah, I am confident in myself. I’m confident in 23XI Racing. Man, our cars are fast. I’m looking forward to get down to Atlanta and have another good run,” he said. “Obviously, you need some things to go your way. I’m looking forward to it. We were fast there last summer and hopefully we can be fast again. To come out of there with another top 10 would be exceptional. That would put us in a really good position.
“We had a really good result in Daytona with the eighth-place finish and getting quite a few stage points. If we can keep that consistently up, we’re going to be in a really good spot for this year. We’re looking forward to it. We’re ready for Atlanta.”
