A three-way battle for the win saw Riley Herbst gain his second victory of his NASCAR Xfinity Series career at one of the world’s most hallowed speedways.
Herbst won the Pennzoil 250 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway after chasing down teammate Cole Custer in the closing laps and passing Aric Almirola on the final lap. Herbst locked himself into the 2024 Xfinity Series playoffs with his win at the Brickyard.
Custer completed the Stewart-Haas Racing 1-2 finish after leading for a majority of the final green flag run. Custer led a race-high 44 laps.
Almirola made a three-wide pass on both SHR drivers coming to the white flag but lost the lead in turn 3 to Herbst and was beaten by Custer to the line for third.
Shane van Gisbergen earned his career-best oval finish after crossing the line fourth by taking four fresh tires on the final caution, and Sheldon Creed completed the top five.
Austin Hill, Daniel Dye, AJ Allmendinger, Justin Allgaier and Carson Kvapil rounded out the top 10 in sixth through 10th, respectively.
The Xfinity Series’ return to the Brickyard wouldn’t take long for a massive pileup on the first lap in turn 3 as Sam Mayer, battling for sixth with Allmendinger, spun and triggered a massive 12-car pileup that involved Jesse Love, Allgaier, Sammy Smith, Josh Berry, Connor Daly, Jeb Burton, Parker Retzlaff, Leland Honeyman, Jeremy Clements and Chandler Smith.
After the second caution for the No. 81 of Smith losing power, the field split into strategies, as Jones, Allgaier and Custer, along with others, pitted as Herbst led those who stayed out to win stage one.
Allmendinger finished second, and Ryan Sieg, Jones and Allgaier completed the top five at the end of stage one.
Pit strategy continued to play a key role as Jones led those who pitted during stage one initially until he lost the lead to Custer while battling with JR Motorsports teammate Allgaier for the lead.
Custer was en route to win stage two, but a caution for Brennan Poole‘s engine expiring on lap 55 allowed Sieg to stay out while almost everyone pitted, and Sieg survived a one-lap shootout with Almirola and Herbst to win stage two.
Allmendinger and Allgaier rounded the stage two top five respectively.
Herbst rocketed past the battling pair of Almirola and Allmendinger on the stage three restart, however, Almirola spun a lap later after falling to seventh after slight contact with Hill in turn 1.
Allmendinger held off the SHR…
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