NASCAR Xfinity Series regular up until the 2024 racing season, Riley Herbst will be seen graduating to the big leagues next year as Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin’s Cup Series outfit expands to a three-car operation in 2025. 23XI Racing will be seen fielding the #35 Toyota Camry XSE in the sport, driven by Herbst.
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The team’s president, Steve Lauletta, recently revealed an interesting anecdote on how the #35 number came to be as Hebrst’s number of choice for his full-time Cup Series entry. “The number, the #35, actually Michael Jordan wore it when he first started playing baseball, so he thought it’d sit with the #23 and the #45 which are his other numbers,” said Lauletta in an excerpt from SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
He added, “Denny’s dad drove the #8 and so five and three together make eight so we kind of found a couple of reasons why #35 fit in. It takes the three from the #23 and the five from the #45.”
🗣️ @23XIRacing’s @slauletta on where the No. 35 came from & why @rileyherbst was the right fit for that car ⬇️
💭 “We’ve been watching him develop in Xfinity, has had a number of great showings there making the playoffs as he had multiple times.”
More → https://t.co/MKhd9eLXG8 pic.twitter.com/yhRLJGbx6D
— SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) (@SiriusXMNASCAR) November 21, 2024
Further elaborating on how hiring the now former #98 Ford Mustang driver made sense for 23XI not only from competition but a business standpoint as well, Lauletta said, “We’ve had a great relationship with Monster Energy for a number of years now back to Kurt (Busch) and with Tyler. To expand our relationship with them and give Riley the chance, there were just a ton of reasons why it made sense for us.”
While the young 25-year-old has experience behind the wheel of the Next Gen Cup car, a switch from Ford’s Xfinity Series platform to Toyota’s Cup Series car is going to be challenging for Herbst. His prior experience behind the wheel of a Cup car came in 2023 when he drove a Rick Ware Racing entry during that year’s running of the famed Daytona 500.
Welcome to the family #forwardtogether #teamtoyota pic.twitter.com/wegE9Mw5vY
— 23XI Racing (@23XIRacing) November 20, 2024
He achieved a noteworthy P10 finish during his first escapade as a Cup driver. The Las Vegas native has also been leaning on former Cup Series regular and 2014 champion Kevin Harvick for tips on how to go about his full-time debut in the big leagues.
Alongside Harvick, Herbst also has the experienced shoulders of Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick to lean on, the latter of which has just come off a championship four charge this past season.
It remains to be seen how well Herbst can adapt to the new environment, with Monster Energy and 23XI’s Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan backing the former Stewart-Haas Racing driver.
