Riley Herbst wouldn’t bite when asked the question over the weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway but he’s the most likely driver to take over the third 23XI Racing Cup car pending the current lawsuit against NASCAR.
“I think that’s a lot of speculation,” Herbst said.
After spending five full seasons in Xfinity between Joe Gibbs Racing and Stewart-Haas Racing, Herbst has the funding and now the experience with multiple wins to his resume to pursue a Cup Series ride, but that lawsuit between Front Row Motorsports and 23XI has complicated that pursuit, even if he can’t speak publicly to the matter.
“I think there’s a lot of things holding back the dominoes to fall and I’m not the first one to initiate the fall of the dominoes, so I’ll leave it at that,” Herbst said. “Hopefully, everything will sort itself out here shortly but I don’t see anything happening in the meantime.”
For now, all Herbst can talk about is trying to finish strong at Stewart-Haas, even after his Xfinity Series playoff elimination over the weekend at the Charlotte Roval.
“Like I said, if it comes to that, we’ll think of the steps we’ve taken at that announcement at a later date,” Herbst said. “Right now, there’s a lot of moving pieces. Nothing is by any means set, so I don’t know what steps I’ve taken or what steps I’ve not taken.
“We’re just kind of focusing on these next four races and trying to go out on top to end Stewart-Haas Racing and that chapter where I’m at now. I feel like I’ve grown a bunch over the last four years, I would say at the end of five years now, so we’ll see what happens, but nothing in the short time, for sure.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.