Hard work pays off for Las Vegas winner Riley Herbst
When Riley Herbst scored his first career national NASCAR series win last week at Las Vegas, he checked off a career goal while showing the result of years of hard work and a willingness to embrace challenges no matter the size.
Herbst, who hails from a family of Hall of Fame off-road racers, entered the Las Vegas weekend with 138 Xfinity starts and three playoff appearances but no wins. He had been in contention on numerous occasions but had never closed out a race.
This changed at his home track as he led 103 laps, built up a lead of nearly 15 seconds and won for the first time in the Xfinity Series.
“I don't know if I expected it to be three-and-a-half, four years by any means, but (I) finally got it done,” Herbst told NBC Sports. “Feels like a huge weight has just been lifted off my shoulders.”
The weight comes from a journey that has been by no means easy. Herbst had dedicated himself to the workouts, film study and sim work required to be a winning NASCAR driver but had fallen short of achieving his goal with two top-tier organizations.
Herbst’s first full season in Xfinity was 2020, which presented unexpected challenges. He had no practice or qualifying sessions for the majority of the season due to COVID protocols, which only made it harder to build a foundation with his team at Joe Gibbs Racing. He still made the playoffs.
Once the 2020 season ended, Herbst moved to Stewart-Haas Racing after numerous difficult conversations with those closest to him.
Herbst saw an opportunity for a career reset. He could take over a car that had won nine races in 2020 with Chase Briscoe behind the wheel and work with a team that he knew would have patience with his progression.
Simply taking over the No. 98 car wasn't a guarantee of success. Herbst acknowledged to NBC Sports that he headed to Daytona to start the 2021 season knowing that he would have a hard time winning people over. His first year with SHR would be an uphill battle, but he was ready for the challenge.
“To be successful, you can't take the easy road, and he knows that and he doesn't want to do that,” crew chief Davin Restivo told NBC Sports.
“I feel like his goal is to race on Sundays and what better way of helping yourself get there than following the guy who won nine races on Saturdays and showing everybody else in the world that I can do it too?”
Becoming a winner in NASCAR took longer than Herbst expected. He improved his average finish each season with Stewart-Haas Racing and set career-highs in top 10s and top fives. He still remained winless.
Once the calendar turned to 2023, Herbst faced more hurdles.
He started the year with six consecutive top-10 finishes but missed the playoffs after issues at Watkins Glen, Daytona and Kansas. He joined forces with a new crew chief in June after Richard Boswell moved up to Cup. Meanwhile, Herbst watched other drivers score their first career wins in fewer starts.
“There’s a lot of guys that (winning) looks easy for them, but for you, it's really a hard task,” Troy Herbst, Riley’s father, told NBC Sports.
“Riley saw the same thing. He saw a lot of people that weren't working out, that weren't just 100% focused doing everything they needed to do to win or to be successful. At times, he would doubt himself.”
There were dark days for Herbst as he dealt with this adversity. He questioned whether he really needed to be in NASCAR.
Herbst could have let the adversity get the best of him and walk away from the sport. He chose to keep fighting after long conversations with his parents Troy and Laura.
Herbst turned other drivers' successes into a challenge that he could embrace. He continued working on his physical and mental health, as well as his race craft. Herbst also relied on a simple lesson passed down through generations of a family with racing in its DNA.
“The biggest thing that (my dad) learned from his dad -- and I remember my grandfather telling me and all my cousins -- is that hard work pays off, and it's inevitable,” Herbst said.
“So continue to work hard and you may not see it today or tomorrow or the next month or the next year, but eventually the fruits of your labor will pay off.”
This lesson is one that Troy actually brought up to his son the night before the Las Vegas race. Less than 24 hours later, the family celebrated in Victory Lane.
The turning point in Herbst’s season came much earlier. According to his spotter and crew chief, it was a fall Sunday afternoon in Alabama as Herbst drove in the Cup race for Front Row Motorsports.
“(Riley) goes to Talladega and runs the entire 500 miles and ends up having a shot at winning it,” Restivo said. “Obviously, last lap Talladega chaos happens and he finishes (ninth), but I feel like that was a huge confidence booster for him.”
Spotter Tim Fedewa saw the same change in Herbst after the race weekend at Talladega. He thought that the Cup race settled Herbst and reinforced the belief that he can compete at the top level.
Fedewa is no stranger to Victory Lane. He has visited dozens of times with Kevin Harvick in a partnership that includes a Cup championship. Though the importance of Herbst’s win at Las Vegas was not lost on him.
“To see Riley happy and jumping up and down on the roof, that was pretty special,” Fedewa said. “Victory Lane was like a Cup (race). …There was so many people there in Victory Lane. All the Ford people and just a lot of drivers coming to congratulate him. It was just a special moment.”
For Herbst’s parents, it was a moment of pride. They had seen the time and effort put in by Herbst year after year and they finally were able to see the hard work pay off. For Fedewa, it was a glimpse of the success to come.
"He's got a long future, and he's just gonna keep getting better and better because he worked hard," Fedewa said. "Now that you get that monkey off your back and a little more confidence ... sometimes getting to where you want to go is definitely not easy and when you have to take the hard knocks that he has, it definitely makes you better."
