How Cole Custer went from struggling rookie to NASCAR Cup Series winner in stunning finish

4 years ago

Cole Custer had appeared to silence the doubters last year when he won seven Xfinity Series races.

Yes, his father is a top executive at Stewart-Haas Racing and a long-time lieutenant for team co-owner Gene Haas. But with those seven victories, including in races with Cup drivers competing, he had earned a chance on NASCAR’s biggest stage. When Stewart-Haas Racing released Daniel Suarez to make room for Custer, it could be argued SHR should have given Suarez another year to prove himself, but it was hard to deny Custer a shot as the organization looks to find its next star.

Through the first 16 races, those who still doubted Custer certainly could feel justified. He entered the Quaker State 400 at Kentucky 25th in the standings with just one top-5 finish — a week earlier at Indianapolis where many of the top contenders had tire issues. His only other top-10 was a ninth-place run at Phoenix. He had not led a lap and earned stage points in only three of the 32 stages.

None of that really matters anymore, that people were probably questioning his ability until Sunday. The 22-year-old Custer made a power move on the outside following a restart with two laps remaining to vault from sixth to the front of the pack as Martin Truex Jr., Ryan Blaney and Kevin Harvick all bounced off each other. A lap later, Custer captured his first Cup victory in his 20th career start.

“It’s just unbelievable,” Custer said. “I just came into this race hoping to get a solid finish and get us pointed in the right direction going towards the playoffs.

“To come out of it winning is just unimaginable.”

Two years ago, few could have imagined this moment. Custer had not won more than one race a season until 2019. He won once in trucks in 2014 and 2015 before going winless in running the full series in 2016, finishing 10th in the standings. He moved to the Xfinity Series, winning once in 2017 and once in 2018 before the breakout 2019 season. He finished second in the Xfinity standings in both 2018 and 2019.

The last 18 months for the most part gave him the confidence he could race against the likes of Truex and Harvick. But experiences from even earlier than 2019, he said, helped him know he could pull off such a bold move at the end of the race.

“It just goes down to probably the Truck Series, honestly,” he said. “I think our restarts are very similar to the Truck Series. You just got to keep momentum up, make three‑wide moves. That’s just what you kind of got to base it off of.

“Overall it’s a combination of everything, everything you learned throughout your career, trying to time the restarts right, get momentum on people, get to their outside. Once you’re up front, you got to take advantage of it. I think we did that today.”

One of those Xfinity wins in 2019 came at Kentucky. He also won at intermediate tracks California, Pocono, Chicagoland and Darlington. He knows how to manage the speed and the restarts.

“He has a lot of confidence here [at Kentucky],” said Mike Shiplett, a crew chief in Cup from 2008-2011 who then spent eight years in the Xfinity Series, including a season with Custer. “He won here a year ago at this race.

“We got him a car that he could drive, and he was happy with it. We had the right amount of downforce for the track conditions. We kept him in position for most of the day. He was there at the end. He knows what it takes to get out front and lead races, to put himself there.”

His win certainly caught some of his competitors by surprise. By the time Custer was to the outside of Truex, there was nothing Truex could do.

“These things are all about momentum,” Truex said. “Obviously he was just able to keep his momentum going. We all kind of came together there going into [Turn] 3. He was able to take advantage of it.

“Obviously the outside is most of the time where you want to be. You get a green‑white‑checkered, a lot of crazy things can happen. Guys are just pushing and shoving. Just the right place at the right time, I guess.”

DiBenedetto, who was behind Custer on the final restart, joked that Custer owes him $100 for the strong push that helped Custer have the momentum he needed.

“Cole is always a smart racer,” DiBenedetto said. “He’s one of those guys, even though he’s a rookie, he doesn’t make silly moves. He puts himself usually in pretty good spots.

“When we restarted, we made a pretty big power move on the restart before that. I got a good restart. I was curious basically what he was going to do. When he pulled to the top, I was like, ‘Yeah, that was a good move right there.’”

The move doesn’t just give Custer a spot in the playoffs, it also put him in the main event for the NASCAR All-Star Race this Wednesday at Bristol Motor Speedway.

The last driver with less than a season of experience to win a non-rain-shortened race was Trevor Bayne in the 2011 Daytona 500.

“You don’t want to make too many excuses or anything — I think there’s things I could have done a lot better honestly in these races,” Custer said. “At the same time, with no practice and no qualifying, you don’t get to test. You don’t know what to expect as a rookie.

“You kind of go in there with some ideas of what to expect. Until you get a real feel for the car, you’re just kind of guessing really. You can look at as much data or film as you want, but when you don’t have the feel for it or what these guys are actually doing when they’re out there, it’s kind of tough.”

Custer had the feel at least at Kentucky. And he made the most of it.

“He did a great job,” Blaney said. “I’m not really sure how he got to where he did. I don’t know where he lined up on the last restart, but he must have done something great.”

Xfinity: Sweep For Cindric

Austin Cindric swept the Kentucky races for his first two wins on the oval. But what made it more special is the team opted to tweak the setup for the second race, experimenting with something they felt could help the next couple of weeks at Texas and Kansas – two tracks that also are in the semifinal round of the playoffs.

“Our next two races being Texas and Kansas and the question of having practice or not is looming very big for me in my opinion,” Cindric said. “Phoenix [the championship race] is the most important race of the year, but you’ve got to get there first.

“I feel like those are two really important steps other than [the next-to-last race at] Martinsville to get there, so deciding on what we want to run at those race tracks given those characteristics and where I feel our strengths need to be, that’s why we decided to change.”

Truck: Odd First For Creed

Sheldon Creed earned his first career Gander RV Trucks Series win as rain pelted the track just as the second stage ended. The GMS Racing driver learned of his victory while sitting in his hauler talking to his crew chief about what adjustments they should make if the race resumed.

“This is just an odd first win,” Creed said. “I’ve thrown plenty away. I’ve always said I’d rather be good than have luck. Tonight, I’ll take the luck. I’m probably not getting all the emotion and all the excitement, but I’m just really happy for all my guys.”

On The Air

Wednesday

NASCAR All-Star Open (Bristol), 7 p.m., FS1

NASCAR All-Star Race (Bristol), 8:30 p.m., FS1

Saturday

Xfinity My Bariatric Solutions 300 (Texas), 3 p.m., NBCSN

Gander RV Trucks Vankor 350 (Texas), 8 p.m., FS1

Sunday

Cup O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 (Texas), NBCSN, 3 p.m.

Stat of Note

Cole Custer is the first driver to earn his first career Cup win at Kentucky Speedway, which has had 10 Cup races.

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They Said It

“You come into this deal, you think all these guys you’ve watched on TV for years, you see all the big headlines and everything when you’re growing up. These guys are like gods to you. At the end of the day everybody is the same kind of person. Everybody it’s just a regular person. You kind of get used to that.” — Cole Custer

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