Information By: ASHLYN SISKE / STEWART-HAAS RACING – KANNAPOLIS, NC
COLE CUSTER | RILEY HERBST
Atlanta NASCAR Xfinity Series Advance
NASCAR Xfinity Series Overview
• Event: Focused Health 250 (Round 24 of 33)
• Date: Saturday, Sept. 7
• Location: Atlanta Motor Speedway
• Layout: 1.54-mile oval
• Time/TV/Radio: 3 p.m. EDT on USA/PRN/SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Cole Custer Notes of Interest
• Cole Custer and the No. 00 Autodesk / Haas Automation team are hoping to build on the momentum of their runner-up finish last Saturday at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway. They must first face the challenge of superspeedway-style racing in Saturday’s Focused Health 250 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, which has provided a mixed bag of results for the team in the past. While Custer’s spot in the 12-driver Xfinity Series Playoffs field is locked in by virtue of his July 13 win at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway, Custer is still racing for one more title in the final three regular-season races – regular-season champion. It’s a feat he has yet to achieve in his otherwise successful Xfinity Series career. After losing the points lead he’d held since June 1 to Justin Allgaier two weekends ago at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, Custer was able to close the gap with his second-place finish at Darlington, now witting 28 points behind Allgaier. Custer looks to string together good runs through the rest of the regular season, which ends Sept. 20 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, in an attempt to regain the points lead from Allgaier. The regular-season champion not only gains a coveted trophy, but also earns 15 valuable playoff points to carry him through the seven-race playoffs.
• Saturday’s Focused Health 250 at Atlanta will be Custer’s seventh Xfinity Series outing at the track. Best of his previous six was his runner-up finish from the pole qualifying position after leading two laps on the previous configuration in February 2019. He finished third on the new configuration last July and 16th when the series last visited in February. He has only finished outside the top-16 once at Atlanta. Best among Custer’s six NASCAR Cup Series appearances at Atlanta was his ninth-place finish in July 2022, which came on the new configuration. He also has one start there in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, which resulted in a 17th-place finish from the sixth starting position in February 2016.
• Autodesk will once again adorn the hood of Custer’s No. 00 Ford Mustang Dark Horse in an alpha-bravo paint scheme with Haas Automation. The company previously sponsored Custer from 2020 to 2022 in the NASCAR Cup Series. For four decades, Autodesk has worked together with its customers to transform how things are made, and in doing so, it has also transformed what can be made. A car’s performance now inspires the method of its manufacture, a city’s infrastructure helps predict the unpredictable, and the creation of ever-bigger universes shapes ever-bigger stories. Today, Autodesk’s solutions span countless industries empowering innovators everywhere. But the company is restless to do more. Autodesk doesn’t believe in waiting for progress, it believes in making it. By combining and recombining technologies. By blurring boundaries, reinventing rules, and merging fields. By unleashing talent and unlocking insights across industries. By helping customers converge on solutions to the challenges everyone faces today. Autodesk believes that with the right tools to working and thinking flexibly comes the power to transform what actually needs making. The power to design and make a better world for all.
Riley Herbst Notes of Interest
• Riley Herbst hopes to turn his luck around as he heads to Atlanta Motor Speedway for Saturday’s Focused Health 250. Last Saturday at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway, the driver of the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang Dark Horse qualified solidly in eighth for the scheduled 147-lap race, but a scrape of the wall and several cut tires forced him to go multiple laps down in the first stage of the race. While he was able to stay on track and finish the race, Herbst was unable to gain those laps back and had to settle for a 35th-place finish. It was particularly disappointing for the team after its fourth-place finish the previous weekend at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway. This weekend, Herbst is trading the intermediate-track racing at Darlington for the superspeedway-style racing at Atlanta, a style of racing that has suited him well in the past. To go along with his fourth-place finish at Daytona, Herbst finished sixth Feb. 19 in the season opener at Daytona and second on April 20 at its sister track, Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. His experience in working the draft has helped him lead a total of 22 laps and earn a total of 49 stage points at superspeedway-style tracks so far in 2024.
• Saturday’s Focused Health 250 will mark Herbst’s ninth career Xfinity Series start at Atlanta and his sixth on the reconfigured layout. When Xfinity Series drivers competed on the new layout for the first time in March 2022, Herbst finished fourth – his best result in four Atlanta starts at the time. He followed that up with a ninth-place finish when the series returned to the track in July 2022. In the 2023 season at Atlanta, he earned a fifth-place result in March, leading 11 laps along the way and competing for the win before getting tangled up in an incident while crossing the finish line. When the series last visited Atlanta in February, Herbst started fourth and earned a total of 17 stage points with his second- and third-place stage finishes, respectively. Ultimately, he got shuffled back on the final restart and was forced to settle for a 15th-place finish. Herbst’s sixth-place finish in the March 2021 race was the best of his three Xfinity Series outings on the old Atlanta surface.
• Only three races remain before the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs kick off Sept. 28 at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City. With Herbst locked into the postseason by way of his July 20 victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, he now has a chance to prepare for the Round of 12 during the final three regular-season races. The first playoff round consists of an intermediate track, a superspeedway and a road course in Kansas, Talladega and the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway Roval, respectively. That stretch of races is similar to the one that Herbst and his fellow Xfinity Series competitors are in the middle of now – Darlington last weekend, Atlanta this weekend, and the road course at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International on Sept. 14, experience he hopes will help him advance through the first playoff round and into the Round of 8 for the first time in his career.
Cole Custer, Driver of the No. 00 Autodesk / Haas Automation Ford Mustang Dark Horse
You’ve started to close the gap on the points lead as you only sit 28 points behind Justin Allgaier now. What are your hopes for the next three races as you battle for the regular-season championship?
“I think it’s just to continue to close that points gap. I lost my points lead in two bad races, so anything can happen with us only being 28 points behind Justin (Allgaier). We’ve always been strong competitors, so to once again be competing for a title with him is cool. We just have to be consistent and stay out of trouble if we want a shot to actually give him a run for his money. Unfortunately, this stretch of races had a lot of unknowns with Michigan and Daytona just being so bad for us. Atlanta hasn’t always been my best track since the track reconfiguration, but that’s a challenge I’m willing to take this weekend. If we can survive this weekend, I know we’ll be strong at Watkins Glen and Bristol.”
Atlanta Motor Speedway was once one of your better tracks when it raced like an intermediate track. With the 2022 reconfiguration, it’s now akin to a superspeedway with intermediate qualities still there, and the No. 00 team struggles a bit more. Talk about the difference and how you prepare for that as a driver.
“I think when you look at Daytona and Talladega versus Atlanta, you know, it’s hard, but they are really similar. Atlanta just has so much more handling come into play and you have to worry a little bit more about how well your car handles on the track. There’s still an unknown, but not as much of one. At Daytona, it’s all out all the time. It’s just a different kind of battle. At the same time, the runs can come very fast at Atlanta because the track is more condensed. It really makes it a fast-paced race where everyone is on their toes. It’s different, but still similar to traditional superspeedways. It honestly makes it very exciting, but also so nerve-racking as a driver just like a Daytona or Talladega. Hopefully we can get a better finish this time around for Autodesk and Haas Automation.”
Riley Herbst, Driver of the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang Dark Horse
With only three races to go until the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs begin Sept. 28 at Kansas, you’re locked into the playoffs thanks to your July 20 win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Does knowing this help you at all when you have a tough race like you did at Darlington?
“It definitely makes it a little easier, but those races still hurt. As a driver, you never want to have a bad race like that, but knowing that we’re not points racing for a spot in the playoffs like we have been in the past helps make it a little easier. Darlington has also been such a difficult track for me in the past. I have to leave it all behind me, though, and look ahead to these final three races. There are still three chances to win and gain more playoff points. I think we’ll have a good shot at Atlanta this weekend to win stages and go for the win. The more playoff points you can get, the better you’ll be as you face the elimination races. We’ve got some work to do, but I know this No. 98 Monster Energy team is a championship-winning team. We just have to survive until the end to race for it.”
You’ve performed well at Atlanta since the reconfiguration in 2022. What is it about the new layout that suits you better than the old one?
“I don’t think it’s anything in particular. It’s definitely more akin to a superspeedway now, which have been one of my strongest types of tracks since joining SHR in 2021. This track is just so much faster now. I saw it the first year when we had an issue early in the race and I went a couple of laps down. By the end of the night, I had recovered all of those laps and finished well inside the top-10. There’s definitely the unpredictability of superspeedway-style racing that comes with the reconfiguration, but it makes me excited to race there every time. We’re strong at superspeedway races, and I think I’ve proven myself on them not only in the Xfinity Series, but also the Cup Series. The No. 98 team has what it takes to win at Atlanta.”