While one of the NASCAR Cup Series rookies, Shane van Gisbergen, ended up going to Victory Lane in Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL 400, the other one, Riley Herbst, is going to end up bookending the field.
Herbst, driving the No. 35 Monster Energy Toyota Camry XSE for 23XI Racing, was disqualified from this weekend’s event at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL after failing post-race weights.
The Las Vegas, Nevada-native originally crossed the start-finish line in 30th position after having a hellish weekend, which included a wreck in qualifying and multiple incidents in the race — including a scuffle with Kyle Busch, who wrecked on the first lap of the race and returned to the track nine laps down.
With this disqualification, Herbst will be drop-kicked to a disappointing 37th in the rundown for the final road course event of the season. The demotion will award an additional spot to Erik Jones, Austin Dillon, Josh Bilicki, Cody Ware, Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski, and NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs driver Austin Cindric.
Herbst will end up losing six NASCAR Cup Series championship points as a result of this post-race disqualification, but the change in results will not end up impacting the battle to make the semi-final round of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.
Austin Cindric is the only post-season driver whose position is altered by this disqualification, and with the Team Penske driver entering the event in a must-win situation, a change in finishing position from 37th to 36th will not be enough to warrant an advancement into the next round of the post-season.
