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Herbst began racing karts as a five-year-old. He progressed through Legends, Speed Trucks, and Super Late Models. In 2015, he raced weekly at Irwindale Speedway in a Super Late Model as well as winning the track's Speed Trucks championship. In 2016, he raced several NASCAR East and West series races along with racing a Super Late Model at Irwindale. Herbst is from a family rooted in off-road racing. His father Troy, grandfather Jerry, and uncles Ed and Tim participate in desert racing such as the Baja 500 and Baja 1000. The quartet was inducted into the Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame in 2014. During his youth, Herbst competed in the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series' Junior 1 Kart division. There's a cute video of him racing it here. In May 2018, Herbst was named to the 2018 NASCAR Next class. In June 2018, Herbst joined JGR for his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut at Iowa Speedway. He made a great run starting ninth and finishing sixth. It was his only Xfinity start. Also in 2018, Herbst was tabbed to drive four races for Kyle Busch Motorsports. He made his NASCAR Truck Series debut in the

#51 at Gateway Motorsports Park finishing eighth. He was 15th at Bristol and Phoenix. He also ran full time in the ARCA series; but missed the season opening race at Daytona due to age limitations. He had five finishes in the Top 10 in his first six races; including a win at Pocono. He added second place finishes at Pocono in the Fall race there, and also at Elkhart Lake. Most of the rest of his finishes that year came between seventh and 16th. He finished fifth in the points. He was again full time in the ARCA series piloting the #18 owned by Coy Gibbs. His worst finish of the year came at Toledo where he started seventh but finished 19th. He had two other finishes worse than 13th. He almost won at Charlotte where he finished

second, and two weeks later he was second again at Michigan. For the year he had eight Top 5 and 15 Top 10's in 20 starts. He finished third in season points. For the 2019 season, he split JGR's #18 with Jeffrey Earnhardt, Kyle Busch, and Denny Hamlin. So, he ran a variety of series in 2019. He made eight starts in the ARCA series; and finished second at Talladega and Pocono. F ive of his eight starts saw him finish inside the Top 10. He also made nine starts in the Xfinity series; all for Joe Gibbs. His best

finish was ninth at Richmond and at Las Vegas. He had 16 top 15 finishes in his nine starts. He made three starts for Kyle Busch in the Truck series. He finished ninth at Kansas, and had a 15th place run at Iowa. In October, Herbst was passing Johnny Sauter on the final lap for the win in the tri-oval at Talladega Superspeedway but was blocked across the apron forcing NASCAR to penalize Sauter and give Spencer Boyd his first career win, Herbst would finish third. In 2020, he joined his cousins Pierce and Thor at the 2020 Baja 1000, where they finished second in the Trophy Truck Spec class. The trio also ran the 2021 1000 and placed ninth. Herbst, his father, Troy, and Jordan Dean won the Trophy Truck Spec class in the 2023 Baja 1000, finishing 8th overall. In 2020, Herbst assumed full-time

driving duties in the #18. After a crash in the season opening race at Daytona, he ran well at Las Vegas finishing ninth; then followed that with a second at Fontana. Another Top 10 followed the next week at Phoenix. He had crashes at Bristol and Talladega; but other than that, all his finishes were no worse than 18th through the first 15 races. He almost won again at Kentucky finishing behind Austin Cindric. He qualified for the playoffs but was eliminated following the first round. He ended the year with a 12th-place points finish, four Top 5 finishes, 17 Top 10s, and a best finish of second at Auto Club Speedway and Kentucky Speedway. After the season, JGR signed Daniel Hemric to drive the #18 full-time starting in 2021,

leaving Herbst without a ride. He made one truck series start driving the #51 for Kyle Busch where he won his first pole. This came at Daytona and he led 21 laps, but ended up finishing 12th. In December, Stewart-Haas Racing announced Herbst would drive the #98 Ford beginning with the 2021 season. After a rough start to the season that saw his involvement in wrecks — none of which were of his doing — in three of the first four races, he rebounded with a fourth-place finish at Phoenix Raceway. He had a sixth at

Atlanta and a fourth at Talladega, but the other races were nothing to brag about. His next Top 10 did not come until race #15 at Nashville. His best finish of the season came as the regular season ended at Bristol. He would race his way to a third place finish and earn a spot in the playoffs. However with a best finish of 27th in the first round of the playoffs, he was eliminated. He ended eleventh in points. He had one Truck start in 2021 as he drove the #17 for David Gilliland. It came at Daytona on the road course where he ran a great race and finished fifth. In 2022, Herbst would have his best season in his Xfinity career; his eight Top 5 and 20 Top 10 finishes during the season were all career-highs. He finished fourth at Daytona to open the season. He added another fourth at Atlanta; and after a 26th place finish at COTA, went on a string of top ten finishes the next six races. Good finishes followed and he

made the playoffs. A crash at the Roval ended with a 32nd place finish and he was eliminated from the Chase. He ended up tenth in the points. He returned to the #17 truck for Daytona and Kansas in 2022 where he finished 12th in both events. Herbst began the 2023 season with a sixth-place finish at Daytona. He then scored five more consecutive top ten finishes. But things took a down turn and six of his next seven races he finished worse than 20th. He almost pulled off his first win at Nashville, where he finished second. He made a push for the playoffs towards the end of the regular season when he finished

inside the top six three races in a row and added a 12th and another sixth. During that span he had three finishes outside the top 20. Despite missing the playoffs, Herbst scored his first career win at Las Vegas. He followed the win with a second and two fourth place finishes to wrap up the season. Herbst will return to SHR full time in the Xfinity series in 2024. And after a win and some new found confidence; he could be a consistent front runner. Also in 2023, in January, Herbst was announced to have signed with Rick Ware Racing to make his Cup Series debut in the #15 Ford at the 2023 Daytona 500. Herbst would go on to finish tenth in his debut despite being involved in a multi car crash late in the race. He is also one of five

drivers in NASCAR history to score a Top 10 in their first Cup, Xfinity and Truck Series starts. He made another start for Rick Ware at Talladega where he started 36th and finished 20th. He competed for Front Row Motorsports at the 2023 Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona in the #36 Ford. He started in sixth but fell to back at the end of stage 1 before getting caught up in the big one at the end of stage 2. He would be classified in 38th place. Herbst would compete for Front Row in the #36 again in the fall Talladega race that same year. Herbst would start in sixth again but this time was able to finish the race despite crashing again. He was also in contention for the win as he running in fourth for the closing laps of the race and pushed Ryan Blaney to the lead on the final lap and almost pushed Kevin Harvick to the victory before he got spun by

Corey LaJoie, and took out most of the field coming out of the tri-oval. Herbst would come across the line in 9th, his best career finish in the Cup Series. Herbst would be back in the #98 car racing in the Xfinity Series for Stewart-Haas Racing. Herbst 2024 Xfinity Series season got off to a fairly good start. The Xfinity series has a lot of quality drivers and teams, so top five runs are hard to come by. He finished the season sixth at Daytona; and followed that with a 15th place run at Atlanta. At Las Vegas he came in fifth before a series of poor finishes. Of the next five races his best run was 13th, and the other four runs saw him

finish 24th or worse. But he bounced back and almost won Talladega, leading 13 laps, scoring points in both stages, and just getting beat by Jesse Love. He had a couple more good runs before crashing early at Charlotte and finishing 38th. Another string of good runs followed with a worst of 13th in the next five races. He almost won at Iowa where he again finished second. Overheating ruined his day on the streets of Chicago, but when the series raced on the big oval at Indianapolis, Herbst finally broke through and got his first win of the season. He started second; led 30 laps and beat Cole Custer by a few car lengths. He was involved in a crash that damaged his car at Michigan, relegating him to a 38th place finish. The same thing happened at Darlington where he finished 35th. But when the play-offs started the team seemed to find it's stride. At Kansas he was tenth; followed by a third at Talladega. But a driveshaft issue on the Roval saw him fall out and finish 32nd which eliminated him from the play-offs. But the team didn't give up. They had good finishes the next three races finishing seventh at Las Vegas, sixth at Homestead,

and 11th at Martinsville. The team was thinking "what might have been" if not for the driveshaft issue. In the championship race at Phoenix, Herbst was unstoppable. He led 167 of 213 laps, won both stages and drove past Justin Allgaier on the final lap to grab the win. But, Allgaier would claim the championship. Herbst also made four starts in the Cup Series; all for Rick Ware Racing. He finished 24th in the Daytona 500 for his best run. He was involved in a crash at Nashville and wound up 37th. He had finishes of 35th and 33rd his other two starts. 23XI liked what they saw in Herbst and his performances as they

bought another charter and hired Herbst to drive for them full time in the Cup series in 2025. 23XI is suing NASCAR during the off-season over a Charter dispute, so it is not know at this time if it will effect Herbst. After the season ended Riley once again raced in the SCORE Baja 1000. Herbst's team was victorious winning his class and finished eighth overall. The trio of drivers added another piece of hardware as they drove their way to victory over a race-high 36 starters in the Trophy Truck Spec class. For the second consecutive year, Herbst was part of the race-winning team. Riley drove the middle section of the race, while his champion father Troy Herbst, 59, returned to race for the first time in six years, started the race and drove the first section, while another third-generation Las Vegas desert racer Jordan Dean, 25, finished the race.

Fantasy NASCAR Racing

RILEY DEDERICK KERN HERBST - 04/24/1999