Information By: ASHLYN SISKE / STEWART-HAAS RACING – SPEEDWAY, IN
STEWART-HAAS RACING
Indianapolis 250
Date: July 20, 2024
Event: Indianapolis 250 (Round 20 of 33)
Series: NASCAR Xfinity Series
Location: Indianapolis Motor Speedway (2.5-mile oval)
Format: 100 laps, broken into three stages (30 laps/30 laps/60 laps)
Race Winner: Riley Herbst of Stewart-Haas Racing (Ford)
Stage 1 Winner: Riley Herbst of Stewart-Haas Racing (Ford)
Stage 2 Winner: Ryan Sieg of RSS Racing (Ford)
SHR Race Finish:
● Riley Herbst (Started 2nd / Finished 1st, Running, completed 100 of 100 laps)
● Cole Custer (Started 1st / Finished 2nd, Running, completed 100 of 100 laps)
SHR Points:
● Cole Custer (1st with 761 points)
● Riley Herbst (5th with 618 points, 143 out of first)
Victory Notes:
● Riley Herbst’s victory at Indianapolis marked SHR’s 27th Xfinity Series victory, its second of the season, and its first at Indianapolis.
● This was SHR’s 103rd overall victory (69 points-paying NASCAR Cup Series wins, six non-points-paying NASCAR Cup Series wins, 27 Xfinity Series wins and one ARCA Menards Series West win)
● This was SHR’s first 1-2 finish in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
● This was Herbst’s second career NASCAR Xfinity Series victory and it comes in his fourth season with SHR.
SHR Notes:
● Herbst earned his first victory of the season and his first victory in one career NASCAR Xfinity Series start at Indianapolis.
● This is Herbst’s second win with crew chief Davin Restivo. He was on top of the pit box when Herbst scored his first career Xfinity Series victory on Oct. 14, 2023 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
● Herbst won in Stage 1 to earn 10 bonus points and one playoff point. He finished third in Stage 2 to earn eight more bonus points.
● Herbst led four times for 30 laps – his first laps led at Indianapolis.
● Custer earned his ninth top-five of the season and his third top-10 in four career NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at Indianapolis.
● Custer has only finished outside the top-10 once in four starts at Indianapolis.
● This was Custer’s second straight top-two finish. He won last Saturday at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway.
● Custer’s second-place finish bettered his previous best finish at Indianapolis – fifth, earned in July 2017.
● Custer finished sixth in Stage 1 to earn five bonus points and sixth in Stage 2 to earn five more bonus points.
● Custer led four times for 47 laps – his first laps led at Indianapolis.
Race Notes:
● Riley Herbst won the Indianapolis 250 to score his second career NASCAR Xfinity Series victory, his first of the season and his first at Indianapolis. His margin over second-place Cole Custer was .167 of a second.
● There were seven caution periods for a total of 29 laps.
● Twenty-nine of the 38 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
● Custer remains the championship leader after Indianapolis with a 56-point advantage over second-place Justin Allgaier.
Sound Bites:
“This is Indianapolis. This is the most famous racetrack in the world, and it’s an honor just to walk in this place, let alone win. We’ve had speed all year, and I felt like we could win but I just messed up on the restarts a little bit. It was a good fight. I thought I had Cole (Custer, teammate) clear and then he slid the bottom of three with the 20, and I thought it was going to be tough. I just continued to work. It has been a pretty tough week on me mentally to be honest with you. I’m proud of these guys and everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing. Obviously the news of us shutting down, these guys could have given up on me, gone to different teams, but they stuck behind me. This is back-to-back wins for Stewart-Haas Racing. Thank you so much Monster Energy. Thank you to everybody in Las Vegas, my family. I’m going to go drink beer and turn my phone off for three weeks.” –Riley Herbst, driver of the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang Dark Horse
“I mean, you could see us beating doors down the front stretch. You’re 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. I felt like it was kind of a disadvantage to lead all day. 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. What an awesome day for SHR. 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.” –Cole Custer, driver of the No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang Dark Horse
Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is the Cabo Wabo 250 on Saturday, Aug. 17 at Michigan International Speedway. The race begins at 3:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by USA and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.