Riley Herbst makes contact, wrecks hard after spotter tells him he's clear

The day ended early for Riley Herbst and the 98 team as he failed to clear Ryan Sieg and slammed into the wall at Michigan. There are times when even a NASCAR spotter doesn’t get it right.

Riley Herbst tried to get himself back in the draft. He had been having a great race all day. Spotter said “clear, clear, clear” and Herbst was not clear.

A big hit into the wall and Herbst’s hopes of winning back-to-back races went up in flames.

OH MY GOODNESS.

RILEY HERBST AND MORE CRASH. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/DIjqZvPJ9t

— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) August 17, 2024

Riley Herbst was racing hard for position. When he got out of he draft, he knew that he would have to put himself back in line or he would lose a ton of spots on the track. He made the move at the wrong time.

Even though Herbst was called clear by his spotter, he has to make the gut decision there. Ryan Sieg had a run and so did Brandon Jones behind him. That window of opportunity can close up as quickly as it opens for drivers.

Herbst has a win, that’s the good news. Getting that spot in the playoffs locked up makes it a lot easier to swallow days like today.

Riley Herbst reflects on strong day before wreck

There is good news that Riley Herbst can take away from today. He had a car that was fast, capable of making passes, and he showed that. One poorly timed move ended it all.

“I thought we had a really fast Monster Energy car I feel like we got shuffled back a little on restarts,” Herbst said on the broadcast from the care center. “Made our way to the front and just a racing deal. Thought I had it, obviously, I didn’t have it, now we’re in the infield care center. But just a really fast race car, I thought we were going to have a shot at it there. It was kinda fun once we started getting racing a little bit. But yeah, looking forward to next week at Daytona and we’ll go from there.”

Herbst felt that he was being more aggressive with his win behind him. Maybe he was too aggressive in the race today, leading to the wreck. Either way, Herbst didn’t blame anyone but himself.

“I would like to say so a little bit. It’s just a huge weight off your back, right? You can take bigger risks you can put your car in positions where you normally wouldn’t do it. So, yeah I probably put myself in a position that looking back on it I probably should have gotten out of. But I thought I was clear, I wasn’t clear, but yeah, bummer deal.”