NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series Overview
Event: M&M’s 200, Race 10 of 23, 200 Laps – 60/60/80; 175 Miles
Location: Iowa Speedway in Newton (0.875-mile oval)
Date/Broadcast: June 15, 2019 at 8:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR 90
What You Need to Know:
- Riley Herbst will make his second of four starts for Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM) this season, piloting the No. 46 Monster Energy/Advance Auto Parts Tundra in Saturday’s M&M’s 200 at Iowa Speedway. The 20-year-old driver had a solid outing at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City last month, where he recorded his second career top-10 finish across five starts in NASCAR’s third division. Herbst started from the 11th position, made his way as high as seventh, and at the end of the day came home ninth.
- Herbst will make starts in both the No. 46 and the No. 51 Tundras in 2019. The remaining two races on the 20-year-old’s NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series schedule this year are Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Bowmanville, Ont., and Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.
- The Joe Gibbs Racing development driver hasn’t made a Gander Trucks start at Iowa, but qualified ninth and finished sixth in his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut at the 0.875-mile oval last June. He has also made two ARCA Racing Series starts in the Hawkeye State.
- The Las Vegas native is also competing in a part-time NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule with Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) in 2019. He has posted one top-10 finish across his three starts this year. In addition to limited schedules in the Gander Trucks and Xfinity Series, Herbst has two top-five and three top-10 finishes across five ARCA Racing Series starts in 2019, including a pair of runner-up finishes. Herbst was a full-time competitor in the ARCA Racing Series in 2018, where he finished third in the championship standings after posting eight top-five and 15 top-10 finishes, resulting in an average finish of 8.3 across 20 starts and earned the series Rookie of the Year honors in 2017.
- Herbst finished eighth in his Gander Trucks debut last season driving the No. 51 Tundra at Gateway Motorsports Park in Madison, Ill. He also drove the No. 46 Tundra at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway, where he was fastest in final practice and qualified fifth in his first Gander Trucks start on a mile-and-a-half track, but was relegated to a 29th-place finish after a mid-race accident. In addition, he made two starts for DGR-Crosley last season, finishing 15th in starts at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway and ISM Raceway in Avondale, Ariz.
- Richmond has earned 10 wins,17 poles, 62 top-five and 133 top-ten finishes in 273 Gander Truck Series starts with drivers including Dennis Setzer, Ty Dillon, Timothy Peters, Johnny Sauter and Noah Gragson. His drivers have combined for one pole, 130 laps led, three top-five and eight top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 10.9 across 12 starts at Iowa. He has two runner-up finishes at the 0.875-mile track (Ty Dillon, 2012 and Cole Custer, 2016).
Riley Herbst, Driver Q&A
You had a strong run last year at Iowa in the Xfinity Series. Are you looking forward to going back there in a truck?“Yeah – I love Iowa Speedway. Probably one of my favorite racetracks – it’s awesome you can run from the bottom to the top. It’s pretty wore out too — so it gets pretty racey and I’m excited.”
Does Iowa Speedway race more like short track or an intermediate track?
I view it as a short track because it’s small and the racing is a lot tighter. On a mile-and-a-half it gets a little bit more spread out. I’m looking forward to the short-track racing on Saturday afternoon.”
How do you approach running a limited schedule in multiple series?
“The bouncing around between series is a lot of fun, but challenging in the same aspect because each car drives a lot different than what I’ve driven the past weekend. It takes getting used to the car or truck, getting a few laps in practice to get settled in and then trying to go after in the race.”
Riley Herbst Career Highlights
- Has recorded two top-10 finishes and an average finish of 15.2 across five career Gander Truck Series starts. His best result of eighth came in his series debut at Gateway Motorsports Park in June of 2018.
- Has posted two top-10 finishes, across four career NASCAR Xfinity Series starts. Posted a Xfinity Series best finish of sixth in his series debut at Iowa Speedway last June.Across 44 career ARCA Racing Series starts has collected one win (Pocono Raceway, 2017), one pole, 310 laps led, 16 top-five and 28 top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 8.9.
- Named the 2017 ARCA Racing Rookie of the Year after posting one win, one pole, 203 laps led, six top-five and 10 top-10 finishes.
Riley Herbst’s No. 46 Monster Energy/Advance Auto Parts Tundra:
KBM-34: The Monster Energy/Advance Auto Parts team will unload KBM-34 for Saturday’s M&M’s 200 at Iowa. Owner-driver Kyle Busch was victorious with this Tundra at Martinsville in April of 2016 when he led a race-high 123 laps. Four different drivers (Harrison Burton, Kyle Busch, Todd Gilliland and Daniel Suarez) have posted top-10 finishes with the Toyota across its eight-career starts. In its most recent action, KBM-34 finished 11th with Harrison Burton in March at Martinsville.
KBM Notes of Interest:
- KBM drivers have collected three wins, four poles, 525 laps led, nine top-five and 18 top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 8.4 across 25 starts at Iowa. A KBM driver has earned the pole for four of the last five events at Iowa.
- William Byron led a race-high 107 laps en route to the victory at Iowa in 2016. Erik Jones took the checkered flag in both 2014 and 2015, combining to lead 243 of 400 laps in those events.
- KBM holds the NGOTS records for most career wins (74) and most wins in a single season (14 in 2014). In addition to collecting a series-record six Owner’s Championships, the organization has produced two championship-winning drivers; Erik Jones (2015) and Christopher Bell (2017).
- The No. 46 team has recorded one win, one pole, 147 laps led, two top-five and eight top-10 finishes across 13 starts while competing in a part-time schedule with various drivers the last three seasons. Owner-driver Kyle Busch captured the pole and led a race-high 109 laps en route to the No. 46’s inaugural victory at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway in August of 2017.
