TALLADEGA, Ala. — Crown-jewel trophies and remnants of the Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400 sit inside 23XI Racing’s Airspeed shop in Huntersville, North Carolina.
Tyler Reddick is the NASCAR Cup Series points leader, while Bubba Wallace stays in perennial contention for a championship.
As the team continues to age into NASCAR’s top level, it seems to be checking all boxes at a rapid rate.
However, its third full-time driver, Riley Herbst, has yet to get a taste of glory and add to the early lore of the sixth-year organization.
In 53 starts, Herbst has just three top-10 results and has yet to break through for a top five in his Cup career. But according to Herbst’s teammates, the No. 35 Toyota driver hasn’t crumbled mentally and remains an important piece for 23XI.
“Riley’s an incredible human being,” Wallace said Saturday at Talladega. “A lot of fun to be around through the good times, through the bad times. I’m jealous of his mindset. When he struggles or qualifies bad, he’s gonna go back and learn and try it again tomorrow. It’s just like, damn, I wish I could be that calm about it. He has a super-calm demeanor. Just has a great head on his shoulders.
“This is my two cents that Riley Herbst came into the Cup Series to a team that is continuing to trend upwards with really fast cars, really great people. This sport is hard. The Cup Series is freaking hard. When you jump into a winning organization, you are looked at as you need to win as well, and as a rookie, super hard to do unless you’re [Shane van Gisbergen] on a road course that none of us have ever been to. It’s just tough.”
Since making his top-level debut in 2023, Herbst has shown quick bursts of his skill. He scored a top 10 in his maiden Cup start in the Daytona 500 with Rick Ware Racing and also picked up a ninth-place finish in the fall Talladega race.
After a discouraging 26.4 average finish in 2025, the Las Vegas native has chipped his 2026 average finish down to 23.3 and has found some speed in the No. 35 Toyota with a fourth-place qualifying effort at Bristol and a top-15 run at Kansas.
23XI co-owner Denny Hamlin has been high on Herbst since bringing him to the organization and credits Herbst’s family for how Riley has managed his mentality so far.
“One of the things I admire with Riley is that even on the tough days, he’s got a very positive attitude,” Hamlin said. “Shout out to his parents for raising a good kid because he’s one of the best, one of the most humble kids that you can possibly find in the Cup Series. I’m really proud to see what he’s starting to do and how the performance is obviously improving as we would expect at this point. So I think that he’s doing a great job and he’s going to position himself nicely.”
Reddick, who enters Sunday’s race (3 p.m. ET, FOX, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) with a whopping 105-point advantage at the top of the Cup standings, understands Herbst’s growing pains.
Both drivers had successful careers in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. Herbst won three times while Reddick was a two-time series titleholder. But to get to where Reddick is now, he had to overcome two winless campaigns with Richard Childress Racing before finally breaking through in 2022 at Road America and winning 12 races since.
“I remember my first year in Cup. It was brutal,” Reddick said. “You go from being able to contend for race wins on a consistent basis, you go from thinking you’re pretty good at, getting to pit road, getting off pit road, all the things that kind of come with it, restarts, you name it. You come in the Cup Series feeling pretty good, and you get to learn really quick just how deep the field is in the Cup side. It’s easy to get down when you have rough stretches, and I think he’s handled all that really well.
“I’m glad that me and Bubba and when Corey (Heim) runs, were able to help answer questions, be there. I think for him, when he’s able to see me and Bubba go out there at times and find things in our cars, it helps give him the confidence to help begin that search, whether that’s through his inputs or getting his car closer to what he wants to do that too. He’s doing all the right stuff back at Airspeed, and it’s been fun working with him and getting to know him better throughout this process.”
Sunday’s race at Talladega offers an opportunity for Herbst to shock the Cup field and score his first career victory. One that won’t give him immediate title contention, but a vital building block for a team and driver still trying to find their base at the Cup level. With some help from his teammates on a drafting track and the continued support internally at 23XI, the ceiling is still very high for the 26-year old.
“He shows up every day with a smile on his face, ready to learn, ready to work and figure it the hell out, and I appreciate that about him so much,” Wallace said. “Somebody like him, can do whatever the hell he wants. He wants to be driving race cars. He wants to continue to better his craft and I got nothing but respect for him.”