NASCAR: Riley Herbst to drive third car for 23XI Racing in 2025

MARTINSVILLE, VIRGINIA - NOVEMBER 01: Riley Herbst, driver of the #98 Monster Energy Ford, walks the grid during qualifying for the NASCAR Xfinity Series National Debt Relief 250 at Martinsville Speedway on November 01, 2024 in Martinsville, Virginia. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images) — Riley Herbst is heading to the NASCAR Cup Series with 23XI Racing. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)

23XI Racing is moving forward with its plans to expand to three cars in 2025.

The team announced that longtime Xfinity Series driver Riley Herbst would join Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace next season. Herbst has three wins over 175 starts in the Xfinity Series and has run full time for Stewart-Haas Racing for the past four seasons.

23XI Racing had long been rumored to expand to three cars next season, though it was unclear how its lawsuit against NASCAR would impact those plans. 23XI and Front Row Motorsports filed an anti-trust lawsuit against NASCAR over the sanctioning body’s franchising agreement. In the suit, the two teams accuse NASCAR of monopolistic business practices.

NASCAR recently removed a legal action clause in its participation terms that allows both FRM and 23XI to compete as open teams in 2025 if their lawsuit isn’t successful or if they haven’t signed the charter agreement by the 2025 Daytona 500. Open teams are not guaranteed starting berths in any Cup Series race and receive a lesser share of purse money.

Front Row is also expanding to three cars next season. Both teams were set to buy charters from the now-closed Stewart-Haas Racing. But since the teams themselves don’t have their own two charters, the immediate outcome of the charter purchases is unclear because of the lawsuit.

Herbst won two races in 2024 and finished a career-best seventh in the points standings. His second victory came in the season finale at Phoenix Raceway. He got the first win of his career in 2023 in his hometown of Las Vegas.

Herbst, whose family has a chain of convenience stores, has been sponsored by Monster for nearly the entirety of his career. The energy drink will continue to sponsor Herbst at the Cup Series level and was a primary sponsor at times for Reddick and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs in 2024.

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