Recency bias suggests that Riley Herbst should be a breakout NASCAR Xfinity Series contender in 2024 and that means the pressure is actually off.
That’s not a typo.
Herbst said that winning his first race in October at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and doing it in such dominant fashion, actually eliminated the pressure as he had come to understand it. The pressure was admittedly jumping to the Xfinity Series with Joe Gibbs Racing prematurely or taking over the Stewart Haas Racing No. 98 one year after Chase Briscoe took it to nine wins.
Validating the conviction in himself means the pressure has come off.
“I don’t feel like the pressure going into this season is higher than the pressure I ever put on myself,” Herbst told Sportsnaut on Wednesday. “The way I see it is that the pressure is off now that I won.
“A lot of people asked me about pressure before our four Cup races last year and I didn’t really know how to answer it except to say there wasn’t any. There was no expectation. I had way more pressure in the Xfinity Series because there were real expectations.
“I was like, a two out of 10 pressure, and that’s what this year is.”
That’s where all the emotion came from after his win in Vegas, the indignation, the expulsion of a deeply embedded chip in his shoulder.
“Yeah, everyone said I can’t do it, wouldn’t do it, won’t win, not good enough. I just flat out just beat them,” Herbst said that night in the media center during his post-win press conference.
That was one of the real powerful moments of last season, and one that validated a year of progress, and a season in which Herbst should have made the playoffs and largely didn’t for reasons out of his control.
“There was a chip on my shoulder,” Herbst said. “I kept it to myself but I heard what people said, that couldn’t do it or wasn’t good enough. I knew deep down inside that I could.
“Rewind a few years ago when I jumped in the 18 (Gibbs) car. Should I have stayed in Trucks and got more seasoning? Sure, but there is always more to it right. We had partners that wanted to be in that series. When you think a really good situation is available you have to think really strongly about doing it.
“I was so green in 2020. I go back and watch tape and it was rough. There was no practice that year. There was so much I didn’t know. Then I move to SHR and I have to fill the shoes of Chase Briscoe and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to immediately do that. I just wasn’t where I wanted to be as a race car driver yet.”
Then came the 2023 playoff run, which began with three straight top-11 finishes, and then finished with three finishes of eighth or better following his elimination.
All told, he finished 2022 with 20 top-10s, eight top-5s and a 13.0 average finish. The pace was even better in 2023 but a series of mechanical failures and several crashes not of his making doomed him from making the playoffs.
“People said they were happy we didn’t make the playoffs,” Herbst said. “They were happy because we would have been a challenge for them and that was nice to hear.”
It was a far cry from what people used to say.
Herbst was paired with Davin Restivo in June and that’s when the reliability and performance took a step forward after about a month of working on their chemistry. There were 10 races out of the last 16 in which they were legitimate top-5 fixtures.
Some of the races they were not were the road courses and superspeedways — tracks where they had less control over their results.
What they were able to do was a major factor in his decision to return to Stewart Haas next season.
“If I were to be really candid, it was more likely than not that we were moving on,” Herbst said. “The biggest thing was that chemistry with Davin.
“Davin wants to be a Cup Series crew chief. He has that huge motivation. I want to race on Sundays. Cole (Custer) coming back is only going to help me.
“The other teams, I wasn’t sure what our teammate situation would be, and that was a major factor too. I really like the people we have around us right now and they all make me better.”
One of those organizational teammates is Noah Gragson, who is taking over the Stewart Haas No. 10 Cup car.
“I have known him since the last day of fourth grade summer break,” he said. “Fourth grade! We’re like brothers. I’m so proud of him and everything he’s gone through. It’s really good to have him at Stewart Haas too.”
So, having all these things in place has made for a really enjoyable off-season, one in which he won the Baja 1000 in the Trophy Truck Spec class (eighth overall) alongside father Troy, an accomplished racer of the discipline, and Jordan Dean.
“It was really cool,” the younger Herbst said. “Everyone wants to be like their dad, right? So to win it with my dad was even more special. It was of the longest races too at 1300 miles and just a really cool experience.”
But now he’s back in North Carolina, prepared for the grind of another 10-and-a-half-month NASCAR season, but this time one with considerably less pressure.
He left that in 2023.
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.