NASCAR
Defending Xfinity Series Champion Cole Custer Claims First Win of Year at Pocono
LONG POND, Pa. – Winless through the opening 18 races of his title defense season, Cole Custer was a man on a mission at Pocono. Despite the points lead, Custer had a lot of self-inflicted pressure to find victory lane again. The No. 00 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford had its sails in the wind for much of the afternoon, only being one spot shy of a max-points afternoon. Custer is now poised well for a potential repeat performance throughout 2024’s Playoffs.
Starting eighth, Custer rallied to second in Stage 1, trailing only Justin Allgaier. A pit stop penalty set the No. 7 back for Stage 2, putting the 00 in command for this entire run.
Allgaier would eventually cycle back to the front, swapping the lead with Custer over the closing laps. Once the 00 passed the 7 late however, a four-lap dash to the finish pitted him against Allgaier once again.
On the final restart, Custer shot out of a cannon and never looked back. In their swan song season and looking to retake the championship, the Stewart-Haas Racing 00 Ford team went back to victory lane.
“You just try and manage it the best you can, but it’s just luck of the draw on who gets the best push and everything,” Custer said. “That was some Doug Yates horsepower right there, we definitely had something on the straightaways today. Man I can’t say enough about these guys. They’ve worked so hard this whole year and just haven’t had that final result. To finally get it is so awesome, I can’t thank Gene Haas and everyone at Haas Automation enough.”
“Second win here at Pocono for our team, so that’s awesome. Everybody at Ford Performance has helped us a ton with the simulator and everything Ford does. It’s awesome to win in the Mustang Dark Horse, we can really carry this momentum through the summer and into the Playoffs.”
“I’ve ben telling people I’ve never been so frustrated being the points leader. It was the weirdest feeling in the world. We’ve been so good pretty much all year with top-fives, and just haven’t been able to break through until now. It’s awesome to get it now, I think we can really carry this.”
Behind Custer were Justin Allgaier, William Byron, Sheldon Creed, and Taylor Gray. The rest of the top-10 were: AJ Allmendinger, Austin Hill, Parker Kligerman, Sammy Smith, and Sam Mayer were the top-10.
Cole Custer is the seventh man to secure an Xfinity Series Playoff berth in 2024. Take a look at the rest of the current postseason standings below. There are seven races left in their regular season.
The Xfinity Series is back in action Saturday from Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The Pennzoil 250 marks the first NASCAR race on the famed oval in three years. Coverage begins at 3:30 p.m. EST on USA Network, the IMS Radio Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
Written by Peter Stratta
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Photo Credit to Johnathan Bachman/Getty Images
