With less than two weeks before Speedweek begins, NASCAR team owners are still working to construct teams.
Rick Ware Racing has just announced that Riley Herbst will be driving a partial schedule in the Cup Series for 2024…beginning with the Daytona 500. Herbst will be in the number 15 car. Additional races in the 15 car for Herbst have yet to be announced.
Kaz Grala is scheduled to start 25 races in the number 15 car for RWR.
Herbst is an Xfinity Series regular who drives the number 98 car for Stewart-Haas Racing and just barely missed the playoffs. He made four Cup Series starts last season for Rick Ware.
Via a team statement, Herbst said, “I’ve grown a lot as a race car driver, especially this past year. I put in the work and try to maximize every opportunity, and I feel like last year that hard work and determination paid off. We were really strong at the end of the year. We never finished lower than fourth in our last five Xfinity Series races. I didn’t want the season to end. I’ve kind of been chomping at the bit to get this year started, so to be able to get back to Daytona and run the 500 is something I’m definitely looking forward to.”
Herbst will team with Justin Haley — full-time driver of RWR’s No. 51 Ford — in he 500-mile classic.
Kaulig Racing has announced that New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen will drive seven races in the Cup Series this season in the number 16 car.
Van Gisbergen will also be driving the number 97 car in the Xfinity Series for Trackhouse Racing on the same weekends.
While his first Cup Series race is not scheduled until March 24 at Circuit of the Americas; van Gisbergen will be racing at Daytona on opening weekend in the ARCA race and will be attempting to qualify for the Xfinity Series race. He is also scheduled to run both of the Talladega races, the Coca-Cola 600, and is set to defend his title as the winner in the Chicago Street race. His final two races are at Watkins Glen and at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in October.