No. 98 NASCAR Ford Comes Up Short In Xfinity Homestead 2023: Video

Riley Herbst, driver of the No. 98 NASCAR Ford Mustang, won for the first time in his Xfinity Series career at Las Vegas last weekend. He almost made it back-to-back at Homestead-Miami Speedway on October 21^st, 2023, but was thwarted by the No. 1 Chevy Camaro of Sam Mayer when it counted most.

While Mayer led for most of the day, Herbst was never far behind him. On the last lap, Herbst tried to take advantage of a slight misstep on Mayer’s part that put the No. 1 Camaro against the wall, but he couldn’t make it stick. Herbst missed out on the win by just 0.227 seconds.

“I thought we had a really fast car for sure,” Herbst said in a postrace interview. “It wasn’t that great yesterday in practice, it wasn’t that great in Stage 1 and 2, but Davon and the boys kept wrenching on it, told me to keep my head in it, continue to race, continue to fight. That’s what we did.”

He added, “Bummed out for Cole [Custer]. He was definitely the class of the field, like we were last week.”

As for what happened to Cole Custer, the driver of the No. 00 Ford Mustang led for much of the race, but was felled by a tire issue while leading that forced him to go a lap down. He was never able to find his way back to the front and finished 13^th.

“Just got in too deep I guess,” Custer said. “You know, had a big lead and I didn’t feel like I was pushing it, but just carried a little too much speed. I think I got by a couple of lappers and just missed it a little bit. I think that was the only time I hit the wall all day. So it’s just sucks. I mean I’m so frustrated. The guys brought me such a fast car. I mean, I think we definitely had the dominant car today.”

# – Rookie
i – Points ineligible
* – Part-time driver
P – Playoffs eligible

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