Michael Jordan’s NASCAR driver joins Christopher Bell in major setback ahead of Las Vegas race

Riley Herbst, the driver for the Michael Jordan co-owned 23XI Racing, will start his race from the back of the grid after his team changed the throttle body of his #35 Toyota Camry XSE. Herbst will join Christopher Bell and John Hunter Nemechek at the rear of the pack in the Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube, which is his home race.

Herbst, the Las Vegas-native, qualified in 34th place for the race on Saturday in a field of 36 drivers. He was ahead of Cody Ware of Rick Ware Racing and behind Justin Haley of Spire Motorsports. However, the technical change of his car ahead of the race put him further behind.

Renowned NASCAR journalist Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports recently shared an update about Herbst from his official X account. Here's what he wrote on the 23XI Racing driver:

"Add Herbst to the rear for throttle body change — all three that made the change are Toyotas: Bell, Herbst, Nemechek."

Here's the post by Pockrass on the micro-blogging site:

Riley Herbst debuted his NASCAR Cup Series in 2023 with Rick Ware Racing in the 2023 Daytona 500, where he drove the #15 Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry. He then raced for Front Row Motorsports at the 2023 Coke Zero Sugar 500 at Daytona that year again in the #36 Ford.

Herbst returned to race for Rick Ware Racing again in 2024, this time in the Daytona 500, driving the #15 entry. He then competed in three more races for this team at Kansas, Nashville and Richmond that year before signing with 23XI Racing in 2025.

In November 2024, the 26-year-old signed for Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan co-owned 23XI Racing under a full-time obligation in the 2025 Cup Series season. This was his first full-time Cup Series contract, and he was sponsored by Monster Energy, his long-time partner in the stock car racing series.

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Riley Herbst shared his expectations ahead of full-time Cup Series season

Riley Herbst, the #35 driver for 23XI Racing, who is racing alongside Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace, shared his expectations ahead of his full-time Cup Series season in 2025. He said (as per Speedway Digest):

"The biggest thing is to finish the race. You don't get any points if you don't finish. I think that is what kind of put us in a big hole from this past weekend at Phoenix, but quite honestly, I don't think anyone is micromanaging the points by any means. That is not our objective. Our objective to get better each week and run more competitive each week."

"I've got a progress check where we need to be, where we need to be better, where we need to excel and where we need to pick up the pace a little bit. I think there is some checked boxes that we've excelled at, and there are some areas that we need to improve on as well," he added.

NASCAR Cup Series driver Riley Herbst at EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix - Source: Imagn

Riley Herbst is currently occupying 27th place in the Drivers' standings with 61 points to his name. His average start position is 26.8 and average finish position is 22 after the end of four races. His best finish this season came at Daytona, Atlanta and Austin, where he finished the races in 17th place.