Coming into this season, much of the talk coming into Daytona revolved around the state of the third 23XI Racing chartered entry currently piloted by Riley Herbst.
The Las Vegas native made a few starts with Front Row Motorsports where his superspeedway results showed flashes of a driver ready to take on the Cup Series’ best and brightest.
Unfortunately for Herbst, his rookie season took a significant turn for the worst nearly right away, getting shoved out of line on the final lap of the Daytona 500 rather than fighting for the win. It didn’t get much better from there as the rookie driver failed to log a single top-10 finish in 2025.
The misfortunes of 2025 could be chalked up to a number of factors, namely the federal antitrust lawsuit his team filed against NASCAR that ripped away the 35 team’s charter (and the guaranteed money from practically every race on the calendar.)
In addition to that tumult, the Monster Energy crew clearly felt their lack of experience and cohesion at most tracks that they visited for the first time.
Not only that, his formidable teammates, Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace, struggled at times through 2025, so the lack of performance wasn’t exclusive to the 35 car.
Something else that loomed over Herbst (and continues to loom) is the constant threat that Corey Heim presents.
Heim signed on as a 23XI Racing development driver in February 2025 after utterly eviscerating the Truck Series ranks over the past three seasons, culminating in a 12-win campaign and a Truck Series title last season.
Currently, Herbst brought over his former O’Reilly Series crew chief Davin Restivo from his time at Stewart-Haas Racing where Restivo sat on the pit box for all three of Herbst’s O’Reilly Series wins after taking over from Richard Boswell when he moved to the Cup Series.
Restivo doesn’t have much of a record outside of his time with Herbst, so it’s harder to evaluate what his ceiling is as a crew chief outside of the one driver he has worked with, just like how Alan Gustafson ended up as a title-winning crew chief even though he worked a moribund year with Casey Mears in 2008.
As a result, we’re giving the third 23XI entry a Grade of B-.
The success of Herbst’s teammates continues to show that the 35 group could be primed for more in the future, but their lack of results to this point hamper their standing as a team.
With all of that in mind, let’s take a look at 23XI’s third chartered car and see which drivers could be inked to a contract with the team for 2027.
(Note: If you’re curious about how we are sequencing this article and the others in this series, we highly recommend reading our Free Agent Focus explainer!)
Option #1: Sticking with Herbst
While many folks will tell you that this is a categorical impossibility, it’s not far-fetched to think that team owners Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan bring back Herbst for 2027. (Note: Something important to keep in mind is Herbst brings a lot of sponsor backing to 23XI Racing.)
Herbst’s performance could improve dramatically this season as he’s already logged his first top-10 in the 35 at the 2026 Daytona 500, and Hamlin remarked on his podcast that the team expects Riley to compete for more top-15s and top-20s this season.
If Herbst is able to reach that expectation, the team will be tempted to see if the Nevada native has it takes to compete at this level by giving him a third year, which would be to the dismay of many in the industry that want to see Heim in a competitive seat.
Option #2: It’s Heim Time
After claiming another Truck Series victory in Darlington this past weekend, Corey Heim reaffirmed that he is one of the best prospects in the sport in 2026. It confounds a plethora of broadcasters and personalities within the industry that Heim isn’t racing full-time on Sundays.
It confounds us as well, but this is the charter agreement that all the teams agreed to, limiting newer teams to owning just three charters. Heim has done his part by performing at an elite level through multiple seasons and even showing signs of improvement throughout this stretch.
If Herbst isn’t retained for 2027, the Georgia native stands out as the favorite to take the third 23XI Racing car that would likely be renumbered from 35 to 67 as Heim has already developed a brand and released merchandise with that number attached to him.
Most Likely Outcome: Heim Time Goes Full-Time
As we laid out in our explainer, this series seeks to explore the options each car is mulling over for next season, but we also must take into account how the team owners operate. Time and again, 23XI tends to make a move on a driver early and stick with them.
That last sentence might lead one to think that I’m talking about Herbst being retained; however, we suspect that Corey Heim will rise up the ranks and finally become a full-time Cup Series driver for 2027 while Riley Herbst seeks to continue his Cup career elsewhere.
A 23XI team that houses Reddick, Wallace, and Heim would be fielding one of the more talented rosters on the grid and should see that third team develop into a Chase contender and potential race winner as soon as year one.
(Top Photo Credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
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