Riley Herbst, the driver of the #18 Advance Auto Parts Toyota, leads a pack of cars during the NASCAR Xfinity Series Iowa 250 presented by Enogen at Iowa Speedway on June 17, 2018, in Newton, Iowa. Photo – Robert Laberge/Getty Images

Overcoming a pit road speeding penalty, Riley Herbst brought his Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 home with a sixth-place finish in the Iowa 250 presented by Enogen at Iowa Speedway on Sunday evening. It was his first race on the NASCAR National Series stage and he was impressive, to say the least. 

Throughout most of the race, Herbst kept his No. 18 JGR car in the top-ten even with some stiff competition including John Hunter Nemechek with both drivers racing back and forth for the position. In the end, it was Herbst prevailing to take the spot.

On lap 201 of the 250-lap event, Herbst had a speeding on pit road penalty that put him back in the field. Although it was frustrating, the rookie kept his focus on the bigger picture and with support from his team.

“Yeah, that was kind of frustrating, because I feel like we got pushed into that speeding road penalty. I’ve never done anything like this in a series, but I guess that’s what you do –  kind of to get people to speed. So I was on the brakes, but I could see I was going faster than he was. So I knew that we sped. We got all the way back to 18th, I thought; driving back up to sixth in whatever it was 47 laps or something. I thought it’s just a testament to our team on how good the car was all day.”

Despite the penalty, Herbst was feeling positive immediately after racing one of the hardest races he’s ever run.

“It was awesome,” says Herbst on pit road about his Xfinity Series debut. “It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. It was super hot, but it was a good job.”

Next week Herbst is looking forward to getting back on the track with NASCAR and his full-time gig in the ARCA Racing Series as a JGR development driver.

“I go to St Louis at Gateway next week for a doubleheader with the trucks and the ARCA cars, which I’m really looking forward to and make my debut with Kyle Busch Motorsports.”

The ARCA Racing Series will race on Friday, June 22nd with the Camping World Truck Series event on Saturday, June 23rd at Gateway Motorsports Park.