OH MY GOODNESS.
RILEY HERBST AND MORE CRASH. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/DIjqZvPJ9t
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) August 17, 2024
After winning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Riley Herbst will not go back-to-back in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, after a vicious accident midway through Saturday’s event at Michigan.
Herbst, driving the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang Dark Horse, was running inside the top-five, when he moved to the right, making contact with Ryan Sieg and sending him HARD into the outside wall.
The Stewart-Haas Racing driver was attempting to keep his track position, when Joe Campbell, his spotter, called him clear. In the aftermath of the accident, Herbst confirmed that when his spotter called “clear”, he immediately moved to the right.
Brandon Jones was behind the incident and spun his No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro to avoid the accident. However, he spun down the racetrack into teammate Sam Mayer, before being sent back up the track and collecting Cole Custer, the defending Xfinity Series champion.
“We had a really fast race car. I thought we had a shot at it there. I was picking them off on the restarts and working my way back up. I thought it was coming to us. I thought we were better than a lot of people in front of us,” Herbst said. We had a huge run on the 39 off of Turn 2 and I went to his inside and thought I was clear. Obviously, I wasn’t clear. It is a bummer deal. We will bounce back at Daytona and try to get another win.”
Herbst, Mayer, and Jones all sustained enough damage in the incident to retire from Saturday’s Cabo Wabo 250 at Michigan International Speedway, which will likely hurt the regular-season standing of all three drivers, especially Jones, who was already on the verge of being in a must-win situation.
