Cole Custer and Riley Herbst Getting Ready for NXS Playoffs

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Xfinity Series
Food City 300 Advance | Bristol Motor Speedway
Friday, September 20, 2024

Stewart-Haas teammates Cole Custer and Riley Herbst have both qualified for the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs, which begin next week at Kansas Speedway. Both drivers visited the Bristol Motor Speedway infield media center to discuss their seasons to date.

COLE CUSTER, No. 00 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse – HIGH POINT IS ON THE CAR THIS WEEK. “It’s always awesome having High Point on the car. They’re a long time sponsor at SHR. They’re the most energetic people that really bring a lot of energy to our team, I feel like. We didn’t have the best run for them last week, so hopefully we can get it this week. I felt like Bristol was a really strong track for us last year, so hopefully we can follow it up and get the High Point car up front.”

WHAT IS YOUR APPROACH TO TONIGHT? “For the most part, I think they’d have to have a pretty big issue for us to catch them, so we’re focused mainly on winning and keeping the second-place position because I think we have like 15 points to third, so I think it’s one of those things that we’ll try to go for the stage points if we can, but you also want the win, so you really have to try and manage those two things and just see how your car is running. If you have a really strong car, you might go for the win. If you’re not how you want to be, you might go for the points a little bit more, so it’s gonna be up in the air, I would say.”

AS YOU WATCH WHAT’S HAPPENED THIS SEASON IN CUP AND XFINITY, HOW HAS THAT CHALLENGED YOUR OWN PERSONAL CODE AND ETHICS AS YOU PREPARE TO GO BACK TO CUP NEXT YEAR? “It will drive you crazy. I think you see that with what Truex says after the race and things like that because you just get used up, it feels like. I don’t’ know if anybody has taken advantage of the guys who race clean that they just know that they’re not gonna retaliate as much or whatever it is, but I don’t think that’s what people are doing. It’s just everybody is so aggressive because they know if they don’t do something aggressive, someone is gonna do something aggressive to them. It’s a really tough situation because if you don’t go out there and be really aggressive, you’re just gonna get used up. It’s one of those things where you really have to manage it and really have to stick your nose in there. Even though it might not work out, you have to be on that aggressive side of things. It’s tough because it can drive you crazy. I always want to just go racing. I feel like if I do my things right, I’m not gonna get in a pissing match with somebody else and just have that derail our day another weekend. I think it’s better to move on and focus on what you have in your car and how you make yourself better, instead of worrying about a pissing match with somebody else. It’s a really tough line to walk on just with how aggressive things are and sometimes you have to stand your ground. The problem is if you stand your ground, then you are derailing your weekends in the future and there aren’t many guys who want to derail their races in the future when they have so much on the line, so I guess it’s just become common practice that it’s just part of the sport, I guess.”

YOU HAVE BEEN IN THE SITUATION HARRISON BURTON IS IN, GOING FROM CUP BACK TO XFINITY. CAN YOU TELL US WHAT THAT’S LIKE AND WHAT HE CAN EXPECT? “Harrison shows a lot of potential. He’s a guy who works really hard and obviously has shown that he can win in the Xfinity Series, so at the end of the day a good thing for him is that he’s gonna be a leader over there for that team and he can really steer the ship, and I think he’ll be great as an alliance partner. I think, at the end of the day, they have a lot of potential with that team. I think you’ve seen the last few races they’ve been able to show speed, it’s just a matter of getting the finishes, but I feel like he’ll be able to come back down and he can bring value to an organization – really be able to lead an organization and get them better throughout a year.”

WHAT IS IT ABOUT BRISTOL THAT MAKES YOU SO GOOD? “It’s always been a track that I’ve loved to race at just because it’s Bristol. Ever since I was a little kid, Bristol was such a cool place to watch on TV and really one of the highlights of the whole year, really. So when you go and get to drive there for the first time it’s a place that you really want to run good at because it’s such a special place. For whatever reason, I’ve just had really fast cars here that have helped me do that, really great teams and you just have to work really hard at understanding the racetrack because it can change a lot, especially with how the top works in and how they spray the resin down different every single time it seems like, so you have to really keep up with it and be smart about how you want your car. It’s always a fun place to go because it does change so much.”

RILEY HERBST, No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang Dark Horse – HOW MUCH DOES BEING LOCKED IN EARLY HELP TAKE THE PRESSURE AWAY? “I’d say it takes it away a little bit, but it’s always nice to get back in championship form before the playoffs start next week at Kansas, so I think that’s kind of the biggest objective outside of winning tonight is to get our feet back underneath us and score good stage points, run up front and lead some laps and head on to Kansas with a full head of steam for sure.”

HOW DO YOU PUT NEXT YEAR’S UNCERTAINTY OUT OF YOUR MIND FOR NOW AND FOCUS ON THESE NEXT SEVEN RACES? “I think there’s always a little bit of that nature, for sure, but we’re very focused on the 98 team and trying to win this championship. I feel like when we are at our top form, like everybody saw at Indy and previous races, we can win this championship and we have the best speed in the field. It’s about executing and getting back to executing. Who know what’s gonna happen next year. Anybody’s guess is as good as mine, so we’ll take it from there and hopefully we can get some more trophies before January rolls around.”

IS THERE ONE SPECIFIC THING YOU CAN ISOLATE FOR WHAT’S KEPT YOU AT THE TOP OF YOUR GAME THIS YEAR? “I think the biggest thing is just time. We live in a world where everybody wants everything immediately. I’m guilty of that as well, and I didn’t have enough time. I just jumped in this thing very fast head first, and now that I have my feet underneath me I feel like I’m understanding what I want out of my race car. I’m comfortable in my own skin and I’m ready to show us at the racetrack with the mentality that I’m gonna win the race. I feel like that’s the biggest thing and obviously pairing with Davin and his really, really smart engineering mind, but to bring me fast race cars obviously has helped me tremendously as well. I think it’s a bunch of things, but I’m so excited for these playoffs because I genuinely feel like we have a really good chance to make it to Phoenix, unlike any other playoffs I’ve ever been in before.”

WHAT IS IT ABOUT THIS TRACK THAT MAKES IT SPECIAL FOR YOU AND SHR? “I think we’ve always just kind of ran pretty well here at Bristol. I think that it goes back to Chase Briscoe and Cole Custer earlier. They built a pretty good setup and I’ve been lucky enough to have that setup and just kind of understand this race. It’s very fast paced. I think it’s gonna be on the bottom for quite some time tonight and we might move up a little bit later, but we’ve had some good finishes and hopefully we can get one more tonight.”