CUP: Riley Herbst nearly escapes Daytona pileup, but gets collected

by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief

Riley Herbst picked up the 3rd last-place finish of his NASCAR Cup Series career in Saturday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at the Daytona International Speedway when his #35 Chumba Casino Toyota was collected in a multi-car accident after 27 of 160 laps.

The finish, which came in Herbst’s 34th series start, was his third of the year and first since Pocono, nine races ago. In the Cup Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 13th for the #35, the 198th for Toyota, and the 694th from a crash. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 37th for the #35, the 429th for Toyota, and the 1,429th from a crash.

With the finish, Herbst takes the lead in the 2025 LASTCAR Cup Series championship from A.J. Allmendinger with 10 races to go.

In the last couple months since Pocono, Herbst’s best run came in the most recent superspeedway race in Atlanta, where he escaped the biggest wreck of the night and led a lap, only to crash out of the 4th spot in the middle stages, placing him 28th. Since then, his 17th-place showing on the streets of Chicago has been his best run. During that time, he’s also made a few XFINITY starts for Joe Gibbs Racing, taking a 5th in Sonoma before mid-race engine woes in Watkins Glen left him 36th.

For Daytona, Herbst debuted a new paint scheme for team sponsor Chumba Casino, this one with a patriotic theme featuring an American flag pattern across the sides and an eagle on the hood. With no practice on the superspeedways, and qualifying cancelled by persistent rain and lightning in the area, Herbst secured the 33rd spot of the 40 entered drivers.

Taking the 40th and final spot was Joey Gase, who for a second-straight year would drive for the NY Racing Team with The National Fire Protection Association as sponsor of his #44 Chevrolet. He incurred a redundant tail-end penalty for unapproved adjustments and would be joined by 8th-place starter William Byron in the #24 Liberty University Chevrolet. Byron and team were handed penalties after the crew was found making adjustments to the splitter after the second run through the inspection cue – and adjustment that made the car fail on the third attempt. Among the penalties, Byron had to drop to the rear of the field and serve a stop-and-go penalty after receiving the green flag.

Despite his tail-end penalty, intervals showed Gase cross the line in 36th (2.882 seconds back of the lead) as the three cars behind him retained their original starting spots: 37th-place Justin Haley in the #7 Gainbrige Chevrolet (2.894), 38th-place B.J. McLeod in the #78 Pigeon Forge Racing Coaster Chevrolet (2.987), and 39th-place Casey Mears in the #66 SI Yachts Ford (3.180). Byron crossed the stripe 3.320 seconds back of the lead and on Mears’ outside, then made up the car length deficit to McLeod in front of him by Turn 1. Byron then pulled to the low lane on the backstretch, letting Mears past off Turn 4 as he came in to serve his stop-and-go penalty.

*Stenhouse’s #47 comes across the nose of Byron as both dodge the wrecking Casey Mears. (SCREENSHOT: HBO Max)*

As Byron came back up to speed on Lap 3, he was 17.766 seconds back of the lead, then 34.759 behind as the leaders began Lap 4. By Lap 7, the leaders caught and lapped Byron into Turn 1, only to not find a spot in line. Even as he tried to pull in front of the last few trailing cars, such as 36th-place Austin Dillon in the #3 Breztri Chevrolet, Dillon rushed past, nearly bringing with him 37th-place Erik Jones in the #43 STP Toyota. Byron then found his way in line between the two, then gradually worked his way through the field, waiting for an early caution. On Lap 11, he entered Turn 3 behind Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.’s #47 Jack Link’s Duos Chevrolet when Mears, whose #66 was just ahead of Stenhouse, ran over a piece of debris and cut down a right-rear tire. As Mears slowed, both Stenhouse and Byron cut hard to the left, the left-rear of Stenhouse’s car striking the right-front of Byrn. Both cars maintained control and continued while Mears spun to the apron, drawing the caution that handed Byron back his lost lap. Mears then took last on Lap 12 as he came down pit road for repairs, now a lap down. Mears returned to the track with fresh right-side tires, but reported a bad vibration and came in for fresh left-sides. The team made at least one other stop to fix a stuck roof flap and looked under the rear of the car to see if anything on the car caused the flat tire. Satisfied that there wasn’t, the team sent Mears back on track, and team owner Carl Long called for another set of Goodyear tires.

On Lap 19, shortly after the restart, Todd Gilliland’s #34 Grillo’s Pickles Ford and Tyler Reddick’s #45 McDonald’s Toyota merged into each other as the field came off Turn 4, sending both cars spinning and Reddick nosing into the inside wall. Both made it to pit road with Reddick backing up onto pit road, and while Mears received the “Lucky Dog,” he remained a lap down. Under caution on Lap 22, scoring briefly showed Gase in last place before Mears retook it, incurring penalties for pitting on a closed pit road and for too many crew members over the wall. On the Lap 24 restart, Mears was still feeling out his car, losing the draft and told to watch for the leaders as they caught him. But before they could, trouble broke out in the tri-oval.

Coming off Turn 4 on Lap 27, Bubba Wallace’s #23 Columbia Toyota had just lost the 2nd spot to Ryan Blaney and was immediately caught by the pack behind him. To his inside, Joey Logano attempted to follow teammate Blaney in his #22 Shell / Pennzoil Ford, but to Logano’s inside came Kyle Busch’s #8 Cheddar’s Chevrolet with drafting help from Carson Hocevar’s #77 Chevrolet. Wallace moved high in front of Kyle Larson’s #5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, which kept him ahead of Logano and Busch. The high lane remained open for Wallace, who was now being bumped by Larson a half-carlength ahead of Logano and Busch. But Wallace’s car steered left into Logano’s right-front and couldn’t come unstuck, eventually hooking across Logano’s nose and colliding with Busch’s right-front. The night’s biggest accident was underway.

When the accident began, Herbst was running around the 20th spot behind Austin Cindric’s #2 Menards / Maytag Ford. Herbst cut hard to the left and attempted to follow Justin Haley’s #7 along the apron. A moment later, Wallace’s car that was now skidding through the grass slid back up the track and collided with Cindric. Haley missed Wallace, then slowed to clear a wrecking Alex Bowman in the #48 Ally Chevrolet. Herbst slowed even more, dropping several carlengths back of Haley. This ended up putting Herbst in the wrong place at the wrong time. At that exact moment, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.’s #47 careened off the outside wall along with Noah Gragson’s #4 Zep Ford. Stenhouse crossed in front of Herbst, and when Herbst slowed again, he was slammed in the right-side door by Gragson. All three careened to a stop in the infield, bouncing off each other as they ground to a stop. In all, 12 cars were involved.

*Herbst’s car is towed behind the wall. (SCREENSHOT: HBO Max)*

Under this caution, Herbst drove the wrong way up pit exit, pulling into his pits at Stall 9 on the Turn 1 side. Before the red flag for cleanup, the team called for a tow truck to bring him back to the “Damaged Vehicle Policy” zone in the infield. At the time, Herbst was classified lowest of the drivers collected in the wreck, taking 39th ahead of Mears, who had just returned to the lead lap with his second “Lucky Dog.” This turned into a long journey. After the caution came back out, it wasn’t until Lap 32 that Herbst’s car was towed toward the repair zone. The truck towed Herbst’s car into Stall 62, where someone on the crew said, “Gonna take it to the hauler, David.” The tow truck then pulled the car back out of the garage and on Lap 37 pulled into Stall 24 across from the team’s transporter.

On Lap 47, NASCAR declared Herbst out along with Wallace and Gragson. Cindric, Bowman, and Stenhouse were declared out soon after. Busch held 38th until Lap 92, when he returned to the track a full 64 laps down. He finished the race in 33rd, still under power.

*Bowman’s wrecked car is pushed out of the garage as work continues on Busch’s car. (SCREENSHOT: HBO Max)*

With Herbst’s winless regular season to Van Gisbergen’s four victories, the New Zealand driver has now secured Rookie of the Year.

Several drivers have their day in the sun under Daytona’s lights

After the accident, several drivers took turns at impressive runs. At dinner the night before the race, Cody Ware opened a fortune cookie that read, “Victory is just around the corner.” In the race itself, where he’d finished 6th in 2022 and a career-best 4th last year, Ware had a career race, leading four times for 23 laps – the second-most laps anyone would lead that night. In between those runs, Ty Dillon muscled his #10 Sea Best Chevrolet to the lead for nine green-flag laps of his own. This was a solid follow-up to Dillon’s impressive run in this year’s Duel races in February, and a near top-ten performance in Talladega. And though Ware finished 20th to Dillon’s 22nd, both left the race with much to smile about.

Also impressive was Shane van Gisbergen, who after a solid performance last week in Richmond made another statement on the ovals by leading three times for six laps and finishing 16th. And after two of their cars finished in the Top 10 during this year’s Daytona 500, Legacy Motor Club teammates John Hunter Nemechek and Erik Jones led seven and ten laps, respectively. Jones led with six laps to go before he was shuffled to the tail end of the draft, only to rally to a 5th-place finish to Nemechek’s 17th.

This leads to still more impressive finishes – the first by Justin Haley, who after his close shave in the night’s biggest wreck hardly left the Top Five for much of the night, ultimately rallying from 37th on the grid to leading two laps and earning a 3rd-place finish – his best Cup finish since his runner-up to Van Gisbergen in the inaugural Chicago Street Course race two years ago. Also threatening to win was Cole Custer, who flew to the lead on the final lap in his #41 Haas / Bonanza Ford. While Custer lost the lead to eventual winner Ryan Blaney after Custer and Haley traded blocks going into Turn 3, Custer still came away with a 4th-place finish – his best run in Cup since his lone win at Kentucky in 2020.

LASTCAR STATISTICS

*This marked the first last-place finish for the #35 in a Cup race at Daytona.

THE BOTTOM FIVE

40) #35-Riley Herbst / 27 laps / crash

39) #2-Austin Cindric / 27 laps / crash

38) #4-Noah Gragson / 27 laps / crash

37) #23-Bubba Wallace / 27 laps / crash / led 1 lap

36) #48-Alex Bowman / 28 laps / crash

2025 LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) 23XI Racing, Hendrick Motorsports, Kaulig Racing, Trackhouse Racing (3)

2nd) Garage 66, Legacy Motor Club, Penske Racing (2)

3rd) Front Row Motorsports, Hyak Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, NY Racing Team, RFK Racing, Richard Childress Racing, Rick Ware Racing, Spire Motorsports (1)

2025 LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) Chevrolet (13)

2nd) Ford (7)

3rd) Toyota (6)

2025 LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP