WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — As Riley Herbst enters his second season with 23XI Racing, he faces a rather straightforward task — show that he is making progress.
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This is something team owner Denny Hamlin wants to see from the driver of the No. 35 Toyota Camry XSE. This will let him know that the team is on the right path moving deep into the 2026 Cup Series season.
"We've got to see better performance, for sure," Hamlin said during a pre-Clash press conference. "I think that certainly, where the 35 (Herbst) was running last year was just not up to what we expect. We have a — we signed a multi-year agreement with Riley because we want to see where it goes in the second year.
"And certainly I want to see a gain in performance. Needs to be challenging inside that top 10, top 15, that's where we expect our cars to run. And certainly the more experienced guys in Tyler (Reddick) and Bubba (Wallace), they need to be competing for race wins more often."
Herbst, a former member of Stewart-Haas Racing, entered the 2025 season with eight career Cup Series starts and two top-10 finishes on superspeedways.
He then switched to Toyota Racing and took over the No. 35 Toyota as 23XI Racing expanded. He continued working with crew chief Davin Restivo, the man with whom he won three O'Reilly Auto Parts Series races.
Herbst kicked off his rookie season by finishing 17th at Daytona International Speedway, EchoPark Speedway, and Circuit of the Americas. He crashed at Phoenix Raceway and finished 37th but then he finished 19th at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Herbst had an average finish of 21.4 in the first five races of the season, but the year quickly took a turn after the final West Coast race. He posted only four top-20 finishes in the remaining 31 races while finishing worse than 30th in 10 different races.
The Cup Series is not an easy series to crack, especially in the Gen 7 era. But now, Herbst has 44 starts under his belt. At this point, he should have more opportunities to showcase progress behind the wheel as he no longer focuses specifically on learning the car.
If Herbst showcases the desired progress in his second full-time campaign, he could set himself up for extended action at NASCAR's top level. If he falls short of Hamlin's expectations, he could ultimately lose his spot to another driver in 2027.
