Riley Herbst Earns Victory at Michigan to End Drought

Riley Herbst earns victory in the ARCA Menards Series, VizCom 200 on Sunday, August 9th at Michigan International Speedway, ending a three-year drought.
Riley Herbst, driver of the No. 18 Monster/Terrible Herbst/ORCA Toyota, celebrates his win of the VizCom 200 for the ARCA Menards Series on August 9, 2020 at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Michigan. Photo – Allison Farrand/ARCA Racing

Riley Herbst earns victory in the ARCA Menards Series, VizCom 200 on Sunday, August 9th at Michigan International Speedway, ending a three-year drought.

 It had been a while since Riley Herbst had been to Victory Lane.

The 21-year-old from Las Vegas felt it was way too long, and Sunday he was able to rectify that. Herbst’s No 18 Monster/Terrible Herbst/ORCA Toyota led the final 33 laps in winning the VizCom 200 at Michigan International Speedway.

It was Herbst’s second career ARCA Menards Series win, but first at any level of NASCAR national series or ARCA Menards, East or West since that victory at Pocono Raceway on June 9, 2017.

VizCom 200 Results

Herbst won that race in his sixth career start. Since, he’s made 88 starts across the various series and collected eight runner-up finishes — including a pair in the NASCAR Xfinity Series this season. Sitting in that position during the second race break, Herbst responded to his crew chief’s inquiry about changes with, “I don’t want to finish second.”

He didn’t.

The Top-Ten

Herbst powered his way alongside Bret Holmes, who led a race-high 61 laps. After the two swapped the lead, Herbst was able to move to the front and stay there. He finished 1.456 seconds ahead of Holmes, the ARCA Menards Series Kansas winner.

Championship points leader Michael Self finished third, his eighth top-five and 11th top-ten in 11 races. However, it was the ninth straight race he finished behind Holmes, and the gap between the two has now shrunk to just four points.

Drew Dollar finished fourth, followed by Anthony Alfredo.

Hailie Deegan, Ryan Repko, Jason Kitzmiller, Thad Moffitt and Armani Williams round out the top-ten.

ARCA Menards Series Point Standings

Up Next

It will be a quick turnaround for the series, as it heads to the Daytona International Speedway Road Course on Friday, Aug. 14. The race at 5 pm ET on MAVTV, TrackPass on NBC Gold, and MRN. The race will also be the sixth round of the Sioux Chief Showdown.