(Photo: Jonathan Huff | The Podium Finish)
As Cole Custer begins his third season driving in NASCAR’s highest level, he already has a win to build off of.
Driving a one-off for Bobby Dotter’s SS Green Light Racing, Custer won Saturday’s Xfinity Series race at Auto Club Speedway. He defended his crown from 2019 and did so with Production Alliance Group on the car, the race’s sponsor.
Custer won a NASCAR race for the first time since his July 2020 Cup victory at Kentucky Motor Speedway. That triumph won him the 2020 Sunoco Rookie of the Year Award, but since then, Custer has struggled.
Amid a Ford parts freeze, Custer finished top-10 just twice and placed 26th out of 31 full-time drivers in points last season. His team, Stewart-Haas Racing, won only one race, while Ford won just seven Cup events altogether.
But, with the arrival of the Next Gen car in Cup and an Xfinity victory under his belt, Custer feels a renewed sense of confidence.
“You still know what you’re doing in some aspect, but at the same time, you’ve just got to keep focusing on what’s coming next,” Custer said in a Wednesday media teleconference. “With this Next Gen car, it’s pretty much a new experience every single weekend. We don’t know exactly what to expect, so you’ve kind of got to stay on your game and make sure you’re not getting too cocky.”
Custer followed his Xfinity victory at Auto Club with an 11th place finish in Cup. He also finished 20th at Daytona a week earlier.
“You’ve just got to take it one week at a time. You kind of have to live in the moment,” Custer said. “Our team did a great job in Fontana. Our pit crew was awesome and you just have to keep building on that.”
As an organization, Stewart-Haas has found early speed. Chase Briscoe finished third at Daytona, Kevin Harvick finished seventh at Auto Club and Aric Almirola is the only Cup driver to have finished top 10 in both events.
“I think right now we’ve done a really solid job. We’ve been competitive at every single race so far,” Custer said on Stewart-Haas Racing. “I think we still have a little bit of room to grow, but the guys have done a great job over the offseason working hard on this car and this is our year to rebound. We’re working as hard as we can to try and get our cars back up front.”
Heading to Las Vegas this weekend, Custer sits 16th in points. In five races, he’s never finished better than 16th at Las Vegas but has four top 10s and three poles in the Xfinity Series.
But, as Custer attests, Sunday’s race has many unknowns. Bumps on the racing surface, he said, could affect the handling of the cars like it did at Auto Club.
“It’s gonna be very interesting with the bumps in one and two,” Custer said. “At Fontana, people struggled a lot with that bump in three and four and it’s gonna be interesting to see what teams push it more than others on aggressive setups.
“It’s starting to get the pavement wore out, but it’s still really high speed… It’s a place that is really hard to get a hold of.”
As the Cup Series navigates its West Coast swing, Custer hopes to continue his early-season success. Tracks like Las Vegas or Phoenix Raceway next week could be prime opportunities for Custer to contend for a win.
“I think we’re off to a good start,” he said. We’ve got to just keep building on it.”
