NASCAR star Riley Herbst has admitted that he 'hates' a certain group of people at race weekends.

It's not exactly hard to spot a driver at a NASCAR race, meaning that signing cards, photos and diecasts ends up taking up a reasonable amount of time week to week.

While the 23XI Racing driver insisted that he 'loves' autograph-collecting children, having been one himself, he appears to have significantly less patience for the grown adults who heft around bags of merch every race weekend to get signed (and then presumably sell).

Asked by The Athletic's Jeff Gluck what the 'pettiest thing' he gets annoyed by at race weekends, he admitted that while he wouldn't be the first to complain about them before calling those bulk autograph collectors 'crazy'.

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Autograph hunter presence 'almost like an inside job'

"I know you’ve gotten this answer 100 times," he said, "so I’ll just make it 101, but I hate the adult autograph collectors. I love children autograph collectors because I was one of those, but the adult ones are crazy. Honestly, it’s a bit out of hand."

Gluck added: "Is there anything that could be done about it? Because I see these suitcases …"

That set the No. 35 car driver off again, adding: "Suitcases! And I just don’t understand how they get hot (VIP) passes. It’s almost like an inside job. This is tinfoil hat time. Somebody’s giving them hot passes – or VIP passes or whatever they’re called now. But yeah, it’s crazy."

Herbst set for new team in 2027

Herbst is set to leave 23XI Racing at the end of this season after Corey Heim was announced last week as the team's third driver, putting the 27-year-old firmly on the free agent market.

One landing spot in particular has opened up, with FOX Sports' Bob Pockrass reporting that Legacy Motor Club's new third charter car is Herbst's 'expected landing spot'.

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