April 27, 2025
Riley Herbst qualified 23rd for this weekend's Jack Link's 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, which makes him a very interesting DFS option for Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race. At just $5,700, Herbst is a cheap option on the slate, but he has a strong race car with his 23XI Toyota, and his track record at superspeedways isn't awful; in addition to finishing ninth here at Talladega in 2023, Herbst has also been able to post top-20 results in four of his six Cup Series starts at this track type. His 23rd-place starting spot this weekend is going to keep his ownership low on the slate, but there's still Place Differential upside with that. A top-10 finish out of Herbst would earn 47+ FPTS on DraftKings this weekend, which would (more than likely) help earn DFS players big money in tournaments. Don't go too overboard with Herbst this weekend, but make sure you have a decent amount of exposure relative to the field on Sunday.
--Jordan McAbeeSource: Driver Averages
April 13, 2025
Cup Series rookie Riley Herbst will start 25th for Sunday's Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway after qualifying. This will be the first ever Cup start for Herbst at Bristol. In six previous races at the site in the Xfinity Series, Herbst has four top-10 finishes and gained positive place differential five times. Through eight races so far in the 2025 Cup Series season, Herbst has four top-20 finishes while collecting positive PD five times. In practice, Herbst ranked 12th in overall lap averages while displaying top-10 speeds in almost all other categories. Despite being a rookie, Herbst is worth consideration for all types of DFS lineups due to his equipment and upside based on his starting position in the back half of the field.
--Sean Engel - RotoBallerSource: DriverAverages.com
April 6, 2025
As usual, Riley Herbst was outqualified by his 23XI veteran teammates Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick on Saturday at Darlington, with Herbst only qualifying 32nd to Wallace's fifth and Reddick's seventh. He was a slow learner in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, so it is no surprise that this trend is repeating itself in the Cup Series, especially at a track like Darlington, where experience is more important than anything else. Although he has never made a start at Darlington in the Cup Series, he earned two top-five finishess here in the Xfinity Series in the 2020 summer and 2022 spring events. Given the speed of the Toyotas in general and the 23XI Racing cars in particular, Herbst might be a tempting option for DFS place-differential points, but his inexperience will probably result in a poor finish, so drivers like Ross Chastain, Alex Bowman, and Erik Jones would be better options for that.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
March 30, 2025
Riley Herbst qualified 35th at Martinsville, matching his car number in a race where his two 23XI Racing teammates Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick both qualified in the top 10. Herbst has never started a NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville before, but he was fairly consistent in the Xfinity Series despite hardly ever leading with five top-10 finishes, including back-to-back top-fives in the fall 2022 and 2023 races. He's not going to be any sort of serious contender by any means due to his inexperience with the Next Gen chassis and his own history as a fairly slow learner, but he'll probably gain positions throughout the race. It's unlikely he'll gain enough positions to score enough place-differential points to make him valuable for DraftKings fantasy lineups, though.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
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