BROOKLYN, Mich. — 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 Hrbst/ORCA Toyota led the final 33 laps in winning the VizCom 200 at Michigan Int’l Speedway.
It was Herbst 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.
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.
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.
Championship points leader Michael Self finished third, his eighth top five and 11th top 10 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.
The finish:
Riley Herbst, Bret Holmes, Michael Self, Drew Dollar, Anthony Alfredo, Hailie Deegan, Ryan Repko, Jason Kitzmiller, Thad Moffitt, Armani Williams, Tim Richmond, Brad Smith, Scott Melton, Kris Wright, Morgen Baird, Con Nicolopoulos, Mike Basham.