NEWTON, Iowa — After finishing second in Saturday’s Hy-Vee Perks 250 at Iowa Speedway, Riley Herbst didn’t exactly know how to react.
Part of him, understandably, was upset. He surrendered the lead to Sam Mayer with seven laps to go and got beat by him a second time during NASCAR Overtime.
On the other hand, Herbst had some relief. A frustrating West Coast swing had weighed on him, and after finishes of 10th and 13th at Portland (Ore.) Int’l Speedway and Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway respectively, he needed to turn the corner.
In a sense, a runner-up at the 0.875-mile short track felt like a weight off his shoulders.
“I’m happy to be back on an oval,” the Stewart-Haas Racing driver said, speaking shortly after exiting his car. “The last two weeks on a road course was utterly embarrassing. It was an unacceptable performance from my end and everybody on the 98, so I’m happy to be back on an oval.
“I have mixed frustrations, for sure.”
But on the other hand, Herbst didn’t like the way he was raced, either.
Attributing a sequence from earlier in the race, Herbst explained contact with Mayer that sent them both back multiple positions, before a late run-in under yellow.
Before the overtime shootout, Mayer ran into Herbst during caution laps after John Hunter Nemechek spun with five to go. Herbst got back at Mayer after the race, driving up to him on the cooldown lap and popping his left rear tire out of frustration.
“I like racing Sam, but Stage One or Two, he just absolutely brooms me,” Herbst said. “We were racing clean for fourth and takes us back to 10th and then doors me down the back straightaway before the green-white-checkered. It’s just frustrating the way he wants to do that.
“All in all, it was fun … I felt like we had an up-and-down day. I mean, it was a clean restart (at the end).”
After rain showers washed away qualifying earlier in the day, Herbst started 12th and ended up 13th after Stage One. He finished eighth in Stage Two to earn three points and accumulated a total of 38 on the afternoon.
Herbst’s runner-up was his first top-five since Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway back in April, when he also finished second. It’s his sixth result of 10th or better on the season, which slots him at seventh in driver’s points.
