While Riley Herbst still isn’t sure what the 2025 NASCAR season holds for him, the three-time NASCAR Xfinity Series race winner added another piece of hardware, which he’ll place on his mantle when he arrives home, on Saturday. For the second consecutive year, Herbst was part of the race-winning team in the SCORE Trophy Truck Spec Class in the Baja 1000.
The No. 219 Terrible Herbst Motorsports truck finished just over nine minutes, and 21 seconds ahead of the next closest competitor in the event, which was the No. 273 truck driven to the finish line by Jordan Brenthel.
The 25-year-old Herbst, who won last weekend’s NASCAR Xfinity Series season finale at Phoenix Raceway over Justin Allgaier, had his fair share of time behind the wheel, but it was his 24-year-old cousin Thor Herbst, who brought the truck to the finish line.
The younger Herbst came into the event as the overall leader of the 2024 SCORE Trophy Truck Spec Class point standings.
Following the win for his team, Riley Herbst took to X to express his joy over the victory.
“Back 2 Back Baja 1000 champs!!” Herbst said in the post. “So much fun racing with my family down in Mexico. Been coming here since I was a kid watching!”
Back 2 Back Baja 1000 champs!!
So much fun racing with my family down in Mexico. Been coming here since I was a kid watching! pic.twitter.com/iAwQzJaUJq— Riley Herbst (@rileyherbst) November 16, 2024
The No. 219 Terrible Herbst truck, which finished first in class, scored a sixth-place finish overall in the 2024 Baja 1000 that featured 183 entries.
Riley Herbst, a native of Las Vegas, came into the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series season with one career victory, which came at his hometrack Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 2023. Herbst put up two more wins this year including wins at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Phoenix Raceway during a season, where the driver has been searching for a new ride.
With Stewart-Haas Racing closing down at the end of the season, Herbst was offered a chance to return to the Haas Factory Team, a new organization started by former SHR co-owner Gene Haas, in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2025. However, Herbst declined the offer, as he had a prospective seat lined up in the NASCAR Cup Series, which industry sources have indicated was with 23XI Racing.
However, an ongoing antitrust lawsuit between 23XI Racing and NASCAR has put 23XI Racing’s potential expansion to three full-time cars on hold for now, and Herbst has been looking for what’s next.
With his future in limbo, Herbst scored a walk-off win in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and followed it up with a second consecutive win in the Baja 1000 on Saturday.
