Much like their Cup Series team, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Xfinity Series team was experiencing the same dip in performance. After Chase Briscoe graduated to the Cup Series, Riley Herbst has been the driver helming the 98 Xfinity car. Through two seasons, the results have been a far cry from the excellence of Briscoe (and Custer before him). However, 2023 was going to be different. Cole Custer got booted from his 41 Cup car. However, Gene Haas and Ford did not want to lose the young driver. He was sent to the Xfinity Series to rehab his career. Although the expectations for Riley Herbst remained the same, the hope was that Custer would bolster the SHR Xfinity Series program in 2023. In the first Season in Review for the Xfinity Series (from Robert or Griffin), how well did SHR fare in the Xfinity Series in 2023?
Cole Custer – #00
2023 Stat Line:Â 33 Starts – 3 Wins, 14 Top-5s, 21 Top-10s, 6 Poles, Avg Fin 10.8
Crew Chief: Jonathan Toney
Driver Points Ranking: 1;Â Owner Points Ranking: 1
Notable Results: Won the Xfinity Series Championship; Wins at Chicago and Portland
While the demotion surely was a bitter one, the opportunity for Cole Custer to reset his career must have been somewhat welcoming. Other than winning at Kentucky in his rookie season, his Cup Series career was a flop. In 3 seasons, Custer only managed 2 Top-5s (both in his rookie year) and 12 Top-10s. Despite his Cup flop, Custer is still a young driver who has the chance to turn it around. In order for that to occur, Custer would have to prove his driving merits in the Xfinity Series once again.
Many expected Cole Custer to be one of the dominating forces in the Xfinity Series this season. Although he hoisted the championship trophy, Custer was a bit lesser than his expectations. That is not to say that Custer disappointed this season though. However, Custer’s return to the Xfinity Series was overshadowed by the dominance of John Hunter Nemechek and Austin Hill. Throughout 2023, Custer clearly sat third or fourth in the driver hierarchy.
Cole Custer’s 2023 sits neatly between his previous two fulltime seasons when ranking them. Custer never matched the strength of his 7-win 2019 season. However, he was a bit better than his 2018. Funnily enough, Custer remained consistent by securing 6 poles for the third fulltime season in a row.
2023 Grade: A
Hard not to get an “A” when you win the championship. As mentioned previously, Cole Custer’s 2023 was a tad underwhelming. While he won the championship, he was not the top driver in the series. Based on how well his last fulltime season was, it was not unreasonable to expect Custer to be more dominant than he was. With that said, Custer is clearly the most worthy champion between the top three series.
The big surprise from Custer in 2023 was the lack of traditional oval wins. His 3 wins came at Phoenix, Portland, and Chicago. When looking at his previous 10 wins, all but one came at intermediates. This season, Custer picked up his first 2 Xfinity road course wins. Custer did have strong runs at intermediates throughout the season though. Bad luck at Fontana prevented him from going back to back at the track (after leading 46 laps). During the playoffs, Custer led a significant amount of laps at Las Vegas and Homestead.
2024 Outlook
With the turnover on the Cup Series side of SHR, there was some speculation that Cole Custer might return in the series in 2024. Specifically, his name was floated for the still open 10 car. However, it was announced the Custer would be returning to the Xfinity Series to defend his championship. Despite the issues on the Cup side, those did not seem to impair Custer from being one of the better drivers in the series.
Cole Custer will have a good shout at repeating as champion. His top rival is moving up to the Cup Series. There are still plenty of worthy competitors for Custer though. Austin Hill, Justin Allgaier, and Sam Mayer will be returning to their current teams. Meanwhile, Joe Gibbs Racing might be more formidable with the acquisitions of Chandler Smith and Sheldon Creed. While another championship would be great, the expectation for Custer is to be the dominant driver of 2024.
Riley Herbst – #98
2023 Stat Line:Â 33 Starts – 1 Win, 10 Top-5s, 17 Top-10s, 148 Laps Led, 14.9 Avg Fin
Crew Chief: Richard Boswell (14 Races) & Davin Restivo (19 Races)
Driver Points Ranking: 13;Â Owner Points Ranking: 14
Notable Results: First career win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
When people complain about “paid drivers”, Riley Herbst is usually a name dropped during those conversations. Due to his family’s relationship with Monster Energy, Herbst has been in top equipment for his entire NASCAR career. However, Herbst has yet to live up to the expectations that are associated with the rides he has received. Through 3 fulltime seasons between Joe Gibbs Racing and SHR, Herbst had failed to win a race and his average finish has been outside the Top-12. Due to his financial backing, it was questionable whether Herbst would be on the hot seat or not in 2023. Even without a warm seat, Herbst needed to pull together a solid season to quiet some of his critics.
As a whole, 2023 was a year of struggles for Riley Herbst. It started out well though, as Herbst had a Top-10 in each of the first 6 races. Then the season took a severe nose dive. From Richmond through New Hampshire, Herbst would only finish inside the Top-10 once. Worse though was the fact that he would finish outside the Top-20 8 times (in 12 races). Of those 8, 5 were DNFs. Bad luck was striking Herbst consistently. Largely due to this stretch, Herbst would miss the playoffs for the first time in his career.
Crew Chief Swap Benefits Herbst
After Sonoma, Stewart-Haas Racing made crew chief changes for Chase Briscoe and Riley Herbst. Richard Boswell would be reunited with Briscoe to hopefully recapture the magic from their Xfinity tenure. Meanwhile, Herbst would have Davin Restivo take over crew chief duties. Outside of a one-off for Cole Custer in 2021, this would be Restivo’s first time working as a crew chief.
With Boswell, Herbst was averaging a 16.9 average finish on the season. Overall, the two never clicked the same way that Boswell and Briscoe did. The switch up paid off immediately for Herbst. In their first start together, Herbst qualified fifth and finished second at Nashville. Through the 19 races that Restivo was crew chief, Herbst had 8 Top-5s, 11 Top-10s, and an average finish of 13.9. If you use that sample to chart an entire 33 race season, that would be 14 Top-5s and 19 Top-10s.
Not only were the results better, but Herbst was running more consistently toward the front. Excluding DNFs, Herbst only finished outside the Top-10 in 5 races. Of those 5 races, two were on road courses (which Herbst is not known for his road course skills). To end the season, Herbst rattled off 5 straight Top-5s.
2023 Grade: C+
While Riley Herbst ended the season on a hot streak, missing the playoffs in SHR Xfinity equipment is unacceptable. This is the same equipment that Custer won the championship in. Although bad luck played a role in Herbst’s rough stretch, the amount of DNFs is worrisome. Herbst only managed 22 lead lap finishes to go along with his 7 DNFs.
On the bright side, the crew chief swap did wonders for Riley Herbst. While the 98 car was still a ways off from Briscoe’s 2020 season, Herbst and Restivo made a strong pairing. The 5 straight Top-5s to end the season is something they can build off of, especially considering the 98 team was not in the playoffs. Plus, Riley Herbst finally got the monkey off his back by collecting his first career win at Las Vegas.
2024 Outlook
Although it would be easy to chalk up missing the playoffs as an outlier, the underlying reason for it are part of a pattern. Through four seasons, Riley Herbst has averaged 7 DNFs and 10 non-lead lap finishes per season. Those are numbers that have to drastically improve in 2024. In the 19 starts with Davin Restivo, Herbst had 3 DNFs and 5 non-lead lap finishes. If Restivo can help guide Herbst to keeping the car together, then Herbst will likely make significant strides in playoff competitiveness.
Although Cole Custer is considered a better talent than Riley Herbst, Herbst needs to get his performance to stack up to Custer’s in 2024. In SHR equipment, Herbst should be a threat to advance through the playoffs. After missing out this year, next year needs to see Herbst at least advance to the Round of 8. On top of playoff success, Herbst also needs to rack up double digit Top-5s with a win or two.
Stewart-Haas Racing Grade: B+
Outside of Riley Herbst’s midseason catastrophic run, Stewart-Haas Racing looked strong for much of 2023. Cole Custer was a top-four driver throughout the season while Riley Herbst finished the year off flashing significant improvement. As Ford’s flagship Xfinity Series team, they represented the blue oval fairly well. Without a surprise team popping up, SHR will continue to be leading Ford in the Xfinity Series. Although the Cup Series team is in turmoil, SHR’s Xfinity program looks to be on the rise again.
For other 2023 Season in Review articles, click the link(s) below:
Griffin Fuller – Team Penske, Wood Brothers, Stewart-Haas Racing, Trackhouse Racing, Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, 23XI Racing, RFK Racing, The Money Team/Beard Motorsports
Robert Cwick – JTG-Daugherty, Live Fast, Front Row (Part 1), Front Row (Part 2), Legacy Motor ClubÂ
Daniel Smith (Statistical Breakdown)
- Cup: Team Penske/Wood Brothers, Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, 23XI & Legacy Motor Club, RFK/Front Row, Trackhouse/RCR, Stewart-Haas Racing, JTG/Rick Ware/Live Fast, Kaulig/Spire, Final Rankings
- Xfinity: Stewart-Haas/AM Racing, JR Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing/Sam Hunt Racing, RCR/Kaulig Racing, Big Machine/Jeremy Clements/BJ McLeod/Our Motorsports, Jordan Anderson/DGM, RSS Racing, JD Motorsports/SS Green Light Racing, Alpha Prime/Emerling-Gase
