Riley Herbst Wins Riveting Pennzoil 250 With Last Lap Pass

Source: James Gilbert / Getty

SPEEDWAY, Ind. — It was a big question of whether the racing would be entertaining as stock cars returned to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on the oval for the first time in three years on Saturday.

For the NASCAR Xfinity Series, it’s been four years and drivers itching to etch their name in history delivered what can be described as one of the best stock car racing products IMS has seen on the oval in a long time.

The man who rose above the others in this grand return to the IMS oval was Riley Herbst, who piloted his Stewart-Haas racing machine and past his teammate, and pole sitter, Cole Custer on the final lap to grab his second career win in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

“This is hallowed ground. This is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway,” Herbst said after the race. “Every person in the world wants to race here, and I won here. I don’t care if this is the Xfinity Series or the Cup Series or the go-kart track out back, this is the Brickyard. This is the coolest race track in the world!”

There were several passes for the lead with drivers like Aric Almirola, AJ Allmendinger, and Ryan Sieg, along with Custer and Herbst fighting for the victory.

The race began with a crash that marred the days of many drivers, but it also lent perspective to the fact that the racing would be much harder than what many may have anticipated coming into the race.

Drivers were battling all race long, even holding position two-wide through the difficult turns of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

In the closing laps, it was a three-way battle for the lead between Custer, Herbst, and Almirola. As Custer and Herbst battled for the lead, Almirola used the tussle to significantly close the gap between the two and was able to grab the lead with two laps to go. But, Herbst and Custer, who proved to have the superior cars all the way, used the advantage to dispense of Almirola and make it a two-car battle coming to the white flag.

“Bumping doors”, as Custer put it, Hesbst took advantage of a run he had heading into the third turn and ducked to the inside to Custer and exited the turn in the lead. He was able to hold off one final charge from both Custer and Almirola to get the win.

“We’ve had speed all year. I’ve felt like we can win,” Herbst said. “I just continued to work and continued to work. This has been a tough week mentally with the news of the team shutting down, but my team stuck with me. I’m going to go turn my phone off and drink beer for three weeks!”

The Pennzoil 250 is what many hope to be a precursor of things to come as racing fans turn their attention to the return of the Brickyard 400 for the 30th Anniversary of the race in the NASCAR Cup Series.

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