"I got nothing for him": Cole Custer praises SHR teammate Riley Herbst on maiden NASCAR Xfinity Series win in Las Vegas

In commanding fashion at his hometown track, Riley Herbst secured his inaugural victory in the NASCAR national series. Herbst, a third-generation racer from a revered desert racing family with members in the Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame, led for 103 of the 201 laps at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday, October 14.

Riley Herbst's dominant performance resulted in a nearly 15-second lead over John Hunter Nemechek, the Xfinity Series championship leader. Herbst, who is currently in his third full Xfinity season with Stewart-Haas Racing and fourth overall in the series, began his career with 43 races driving for Joe Gibbs Racing.

The moment it became clear that Herbst had the most superior car in the race was when he swiftly passed his Stewart-Haas Racing teammate, Cole Custer, on the fourth turn of the final lap of stage two.

This accomplishment marked Riley Herbst's second career stage win and also marked the 100th victory for Stewart-Haas Racing in NASCAR. Custer himself had a suspicion that his teammate might have the strongest car on the track when he secured a second-place finish in the second stage of the race day.

According to Napassports, Cole Custer said:

“I was around him and I was like ‘Yeah, I got nothing for him, I mean, I think we could have made our car a little better if we got another stop to tighten it up. But they were very good."

Riley Herbst also participated in four Cup races this year, receiving praise from Ryan Blaney for his assistance at Talladega last month.

This year was a major disappointment as we didn't qualify for the playoffs, says Riley Herbst post race

Despite representing one of the top teams in the series, Herbst's failure to make the playoffs this year was a source of humiliation, as he expressed after his win on Saturday. Riley Herbst exclusively made a statement post-race to NBC Sports:

"I’ve been working on myself and everything I can control and I knew all I could do is all I could do and if there was a caution, there was a caution, and we’re gonna race them straight up."

This year was such a failure that we didn’t make the playoffs. It’s so embarrassing to be in a car like this that doesn’t make the playoffs and walk in the garage each week with your head down, but Davin Restivo and all these guys on the 98 team told me to keep my head up and we’re gonna go win a race and that’s what we did. I can’t fathom it.”

This historic victory at Herbst's hometown track set a new benchmark in NASCAR Xfinity Series history. It marked the largest winning margin ever achieved by an Xfinity driver at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The previous Las Vegas record was held by Jeff Burton in March 2002 when he started from the pole, led 148 laps and secured victory with an 8.4-second lead over Michael Waltrip.

Among the Stewart-Haas Racing teammates, Cole Custer finished in third place, contributing to Ford's success with first and third place. Chandler Smith claimed the fourth position among a group of Chevrolets, including Sam Mayer, Justin Allgaier, Austin Hill, Brandon Jones, Daniel Hemric and Layne Riggs, who rounded out the top 10.