Information By: ASHLYN SISKE / STEWART-HAAS RACING – KANNAPOLIS, NC
COLE CUSTER | RILEY HERBST
Kansas NASCAR Xfinity Series Advance
NASCAR Xfinity Series Overview
• Event: Kansas Lottery 300 (Round 27 of 33)
• Date: Saturday, Sept. 28
• Location: Kansas Speedway in Kansas City
• Layout: 1.5-mile oval
• Time/TV/Radio: 4 p.m. EDT on CW/MRN/SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Cole Custer Notes of Interest
• The reigning NASCAR Xfinity Series champion is back to defend his title with the support of a few fellow champs in Saturday’s Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City. Custer will sport a bright and vibrant orange Ford Mustang Dark Horse for the first time this season spotlighting NXT on CW and several of its championship-winning wrestlers. Launched by WWE Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque, NXT has aired weekly since 2012 and features the brightest young talent in sports entertainment. Nearly 90 percent of the participants in last year’s WrestleMania were developed under the NXT banner. Led by WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels, NXT is popular with younger audiences. WWE Superstars, including Roman Reigns, Seth “Freakin” Rollins and Charlotte Flair, have come up through NXT, a series similar to the Xfinity Series where rising stars attempt to find their way into the elite series of their sport. Many NXT Superstars have gone on to WWE’s main roster and performed on the biggest stage. Kansas will be the first of two races for this partnership, with the second coming on Oct. 26 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. This weekend, Custer’s No. 00 Ford Mustang will highlight four of the NXT’s Superstars – on the hood NXT Women’s champion Roxanne Perez and Trick Williams, while the quarter panels will feature NXT Women’s North American champion Kelani Jordan and NXT champion Ethan Page. The No. 00 Stewart-Haas team will also host Jordan and Page at the track for their first NASCAR race this weekend. Custer hopes the NXT Superstars connection this weekend helps him kick off this year’s playoff run with the ultimate result as he seeks to successfully defend his 2023 Xfinity Series title.
• Custer adds a new title to his resume after clinching his first career NASCAR Xfinity Series regular-season championship by winning last Friday night at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. The driver of the No. 00 Ford Mustang Dark Horse entered the race 43 points behind points-leader Justin Allgaier. Custer was in a virtual must-win situation for the regular-season title after seeing the points lead he held since the June 1 race at Portland (Ore.) International Raceway dwindle away during a tough stretch of races following the series’ return from the Olympic break. He started Friday’s race second but made contact with the wall on lap four that caused a cut right-front tire. His hopes for the regular-season title and valuable extra playoff points appeared to be out of reach, but a determined Custer drove his way back up through the field to earn bonus points with finishes of seventh and second in the opening two stages, respectively. Meanwhile, issues with Allgaier’s No. 7 car opened up a chance for Custer. In the final stage, Custer still faced a must-win situation and also needed Allgaier to finish 26th or worse in order emerge with the regular-season championship and accompanying 10 bonus playoff points. Custer took command in that final stage, leading the final 92 laps en route to his second win of the season and 15th of his Xfinity Series career. He’ll start the playoffs’ Round of 12 second in the standings, just six points behind Allgaier.
• Saturday’s Kansas Lottery 300 will mark Custer’s sixth career Xfinity Series start at Kansas. His best Kansas finish is 11th, earned in the October 2019 race when he led 85 laps. He has an additional eight starts outside of the Xfinity Series at Kansas – one in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and seven in the NASCAR Cup Series. He finished seventh in his lone Truck Series start there in May 2016, and a posted best Cup Series finish of 18th in September 2021.
• Custer will once again “Honor a Cancer Hero” this weekend in partnership with the Martin Truex Jr. Foundation and the NASCAR Foundation. Earlier this season, the organizations welcomed fans to bid on the chance to have the name of their “cancer hero” on the driver-side nameplate of their favorite driver’s car. Custer will run the name of East Hartford-native Rindi Taylor, who valiantly fought ovarian cancer until her passing in August 2013. She was nominated by her daughter-in-law Meghan Taylor, who hopes to honor Rindi by putting her name on the car of her grandson’s favorite driver.
• The CW is America’s fifth major broadcast network and is available to 100% of U.S. television households. The CW delivers primetime entertainment programming and more than 500 hours of sports programming annually, including LIV Golf, ACC football and basketball, Pac-12 football, “Inside the NFL,” WWE NXT and the NASCAR Xfinity Series. The free, ad-supported CW App is widely available on all major platforms. The CW App is home to The CW’s primetime programming, live streaming of LIV Golf tournaments, and a library of entertaining film and television content. The CW is 75% owned by Nexstar Media Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: NXST), a leading diversified media company and the largest CW affiliate group. For more information about The CW, please visit www.cwtv.com.
Riley Herbst Notes of Interest
• Riley Herbst is ready to race for redemption in Saturday’s Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway as his championship run begins a year after he was heartbreakingly eliminated from making the 2023 playoffs. The Las Vegas native and two-time Xfinity Series winner has his eyes on the prize as he vies for the title of 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion against 11 other fulltime drivers, including his teammate Cole Custer. Herbst finished the regular season eighth in the standings and will start the playoffs in the same position, with a total of 10 playoffs points collected via his stage and race wins. While he starts the Round of 12 on the bubble for advancing to the Round of 8 three races hence, he’s only one point behind seventh-place Sam Mayer and three points behind sixth-place Jesse Love. After a disappointing 13th-place finish last Friday at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, his favorite track, Herbst hopes to turn the focus to his bid for his first championship and making it back-to-back titles for Stewart-Haas Racing.
• This is Herbst’s fourth appearance in the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs in five fulltime seasons. The driver of the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang Dark Horse clinched his playoff berth before the Olympic Break by virtue of his July 20 win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In seasons prior, Herbst has pointed his way into the seven-race postseason. Herbst has been on a roll since missing the playoffs in 2023. After last September’s regular-season finale at Kansas, he went on to finish in the top-five in the final five races of the season, including his first career Xfinity Series victory at his hometown Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and scored more points than all the drivers in the Xfinity Series Round of 8 playoff field. The No. 98 team is confident that if it can survive the Round of 12, which features the intermediate oval at Kansas, the behemoth Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, and the unpredictable Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway Roval, it can flourish on its “bread-and-butter” tracks in the Round of 8 in hopes of making the Championship 4 field Nov. 9 at Phoenix Raceway.
• Saturday’s race will mark Herbst’s sixth career start at Kansas. In his five prior starts, Herbst earned a best finish of ninth in his rookie 2020 season after starting eighth. He has finished outside of the top-25 just once in his Xfinity Series career at the 1.5-mile track. The Las Vegas native has an additional six starts outside of the Xfinity Series at Kansas – four in the ARCA Menards Series, all top-10 finishes and two in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. He has a best finish of third in his July 2020 ARCA start after starting on the pole. Best of his two Truck Series starts was a ninth-place run in May 2019.
• Like his teammate Custer, Herbst will once again support Martin Truex Jr.’s Honor a Cancer Hero program at Kansas in conjunction with the NASCAR Foundation. The cancer hero whose name will appear on his racecar’s driver-side nameplate is Ali Tupper, a breast cancer survivor who was diagnosed in March 2018 at just 39 years of age. Nominated by Kelsey Tupper, Ali has valiantly fought the tough battle against cancer. She continues her battle with the support of her family and friends.
Cole Custer, Driver of the No. 00 NXT on CW Ford Mustang Dark Horse
Bristol last weekend was nothing less than a fairytale ending. You went into the race 43 points behind regular-season championship leader Justin Allgaier and emerged with a dominating victory and the championship by a three-point margin. How does it feel to win the regular-season title in such a manner just one week before the playoffs begin?
“I honestly went into last weekend thinking that the regular-season championship was just out of our grasp. We needed luck on our side to get it because Justin (Allgaier) had such a lead. When he had issues, we had to take advantage of it and win the race. That’s just what we did. Even after we brushed the wall on lap four, my team never gave up and I was back in the top-10 by the end of the first stage. I’m so proud of the No. 00 team and how we’re able to overcome adversity. I’ve never won the regular-season championship in my career, so to knock down another milestone before I move back up to the NASCAR Cup Series just means that much more. The confidence is high now as we head into the playoffs, and hopefully we can ride it all the way to the championship.”
You’re welcoming a new partner to your car this weekend with NXT on CW, just one week after The CW kicked off its broadcasts of the the final eight Xfinity Series races of the season. How important is it to you that you have the support of this new partner, which is putting so much into the Xfinity Series?
“Man, I’m so excited to have NXT on CW on our car this weekend. The CW itself is investing so much in the NASCAR Xfinity Series right now, so to have their support just means that much more. They’re covering the entire playoffs to prepare for 2025, so it’s exciting for them to support me in the first race of the playoffs and later on at Homestead. I’ve always been a big fan of the WWE and the NXT Series is just like the Xfinity Series, they’re all trying to get to the top level. I’m hoping to get them a strong run at Kansas and hopefully in victory lane for back-to-back No. 00 car wins.”
Riley Herbst, Driver of the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang Dark Horse
After missing the playoffs last season, you’re back for redemption as you start your championship run at a track that brought you heartbreak last year. Talk about what you’ve learned since the Kansas race last year.
“Last year was a heartbreak. We went into Kansas fighting for a place in the playoffs and left just short of the final spot. I was so frustrated and disappointed in myself. Still, we had seven races until the end of the season and I had to pick myself up to finish the year strong. I won’t lie – it was hard. We should’ve made the playoffs, but a string of bad races ruined that for us. Once I pushed all of that doubt aside, though, it changed everything. I won my first Xfinity Series race, scored the most points of any driver in the Round of 8, and scored five straight top-fives to close out the season. Experiencing all of this helped me grow as a driver. My journey in the Xfinity Series has been on a slower progression than others, but I’m proud of it. I’m a better driver because of it.”
Kansas has been a solid track for you in the past – especially in the Truck Series and ARCA Menards Series. What do you like about the track?
“I love this track. Kansas is probably one of my favorite intermediate tracks just because I have some solid history there in Trucks and ARCA. Even in the Xfinity Series, we’ve been decent there. There’s a lot that can transfer over from those starts to the Xfinity Series, but ultimately seat time helps you learn the track. We’ve had fast Ford Mustangs each and every week this year, so now it’s just about leaving any bad luck behind us and making no mistakes as we start the playoffs. I want to be able to park the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang in victory lane so we can automatically advance to the Round of 8. It would make the unpredictability of Talladega and the Roval a lot easier to handle in the two weeks after.”