In the closing laps of Sunday’s YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, Riley Herbst suffered one of the biggest wrecks that the NASCAR Cup Series has seen all year, with his No. 35 Toyota Camry XSE making two points of major contact with the SAFER Barrier.
At first, the significant impact for the second-year NASCAR Cup Series driver went undetected, including by the AMR Safety Team, as everybody was more focused on three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano, who had just flipped upside down and slid past the start-finish line and toward Turn 1 on his roof.
It took a while for Herbst, a native of Las Vegas, Nevada, to climb out of his Monster Energy-sponsored machine, and it took some help from the safety team to get the 27-year-old driver into the ambulance.
Of course, one of the main concerns for Herbst was a concussion, considering it was just eight weeks ago that the driver of the No. 35 had suffered a previous one after a wreck with Michael McDowell and Connor Zilisch at New Hampshire.
Herbst was checked and released from the infield care center rather quickly, but, at first, denied comment to USA Sports. Once the race finished, though, Herbst spoke with Kim Coon about the incident, while sporting a cast on his wrist.
“It was a big one but just thank you to 23XI Racing and Toyota for the support,” Herbst said post-race. “It’s been an up-and-down year to say the least. I thought we had a shot at it there at the end. We got shuffled out a bit but came back and ultimately just got caught up in that wreck at Talladega.”
That was followed by the humorous quip of, “My dad always said if you’re going to be dumb, you better be tough. So, cheers.”
On Monday’s episode of Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin, Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 Toyota Camry XSE for Joe Gibbs Racing and co-owner of 23XI Racing, the team Herbst drivers for, offered a quick update on his condition.
“[Riley Herbst] has got some bumps and bruises, and obviously his wrist is not great,” Hamlin mentioned. “So, he’ll get check out this week. Lucky for him, the No. 22 obviously didn’t get hit while he was upside down, but yeah man, the hits in these things are tough, like he said, if you’re going to be dumb you got to be tough and he took one of the biggest hits you can possibly take in this car.”
Further updates on Herbst, including his status for Sunday’s XFINITY 500 at Martinsville Speedway, will likely come at a later date, and from either Denny Hamlin or 23XI Racing. When Herbst sat out at Daytona, it was Harrison Burton who replaced him in the No. 35, but with Corey Heim not racing a fourth, part-time entry, it’s unclear who would get the nod, if needed.
