Back in 2024, Riley Herbst earned a vote of confidence from Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin when 23XI Racing handed him the keys to the No. 35 Monster Energy Toyota Camry XSE, expanding the organization into a three-car operation alongside Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick. And now Herbst is ready to circle back for another season with unfinished business, intent on validating the faith Hamlin placed in him when the deal was first signed.
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The numbers from last year did not flatter him. Herbst closed his rookie Cup campaign with eight top-20 finishes, no top-10 results, and a 35th-place ranking in the 2025 Cup Series standings. The learning proved to be a vertical ride, and the results reflected it. Still, with the Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium just days to go, followed closely by the Daytona 500, the Nevada native views the calendar as a clean slate and an opportunity to reset.
Herbst acknowledged the grind of his first season, saying, “Man, it was really difficult. But it was good to get that year under my belt and get all the experience and the laps. The rookie year is difficult. We learned a lot, and hopefully we can expand and have a better year this year. Some races were good, and a lot of races were bad. There were just a lot of learning races.”
Hamlin, for his part, never sold false hope. Before Herbst ever strapped into his team’s Cup car, the veteran owner-driver praised his hunger and work ethic while keeping his expectations calculated. Hamlin believed Herbst had the tools to race inside the top 20 on many weekends, but he also understood the uphill climb rookies face in modern Next Gen Cup machinery.
That benchmark went unmet in year one, and Herbst knows it. The difference now, he believes, is just the familiarity of the tracks that once felt foreign no longer come without reference points, and the car itself no longer feels like a completely new machine.
So what does Herbst feel he needs to improve upon this year?
Early last season, Herbst had recorded three straight 17th-place finishes at Daytona, Atlanta, and Circuit of the Americas. After stumbling at Phoenix, he rebounded with another top-20 showing at Las Vegas. Those stretches, although brief, definitely showed a peek of what could become routine with cleaner execution.
With the preparation sharpened across the board, Herbst has taken encouragement from the offseason work put in by crew chief Davin Restivo and the No. 35 group. New engineers have joined the effort, bringing fresh perspectives. “Davin (Restivo) has been working hard. We also have a couple of new engineers on the team, so I’m looking forward to their insight and experience on how to make our car go faster,” Herbst said.
Consistency sits at the top of his checklist for this season. He believes the team must execute from the first lap of practice through the final checkered flag, pulling up qualifying efforts and sustaining pace over full race distances. The No. 35 crew has mapped out a structured plan to avoid the peaks and valleys, unlike last season.
Herbst’s personal goal mirrors Hamlin’s original expectation, as he wants to live inside the top 20 far more often, not as an outlier but as a baseline.
