Cole Custer Clinches Regular Season Title with Bristol Victory

Cole Custer celebrating in Victory Lane after winning the Food City 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway. (Photo: Holden Barnes | The Podium Finish)

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Cole Custer and the No. 00 team had been on a bit of a cold stretch, finishing outside of the top 20 in four of five races, but that all came to an end after winning the Food City 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway on Friday night.

During that span of disappointing finishes, Custer had lost the points lead to veteran Justin Allgaier, but with the win and 13 stage points to go along with Allgaier’s 30th-place finish, Custer was able to win the regular season title in the final race before the postseason.

“This is huge because our confidence was going down there the last month,” said Custer. “To get this win really means a lot. These guys never give up. It’s been a tough month, but to be able to lead into the playoffs like this, we’re going to really bring it to them.”

The Bristol victory and regular season title added 20 playoff points to Custer’s total as he looks to defend his NASCAR Xfinity Series crown starting at Kansas.

Cole Custer crosses the start/finish line as the checkered flag flies to win the Food City 300. (Photo: Holden Barnes | The Podium Finish)

Following the tough 30th-place finish, Allgaier was discouraged after the race, especially because of the speed in his No. 7 car.

“I’m really bummed about tonight,” Allgaier said. “We’ll go back and talk about it. We had the best car tonight. It was very obvious from the beginning of the race that it was the best car and nothing to show for it.”

Although Allgaier lost out on the regular season title, the veteran still enters the playoffs as the No. 1 seed with 34 playoff points.

Once again coming home in second place was Sheldon Creed, who now has 13 second place finishes without a win, adding to the NASCAR Xfinity Series record-setting total. It was also the 13th top five of the year for Creed, which leads the series and heads into the playoffs with a lot of momentum with his No. 18 team.

Cole Custer doing a burnout after winning at Bristol Motor Speedway. (Photo: Holden Barnes | The Podium Finish)

“We’ve been really consistent which is great, I don’t even care about how many seconds (place finishes) I have at this point,” Creed told CW Sports reporter Dillon Welch. “It’s still cool to run good every week and I’m loving that part of it.”

Saturday’s race was also a special one due to the return and potentially last NASCAR start for the fan favorite, Dale Earnhardt Jr. It was a difficult start to the race for Earnhardt with helmet/radio troubles, but after a hard-fought 300 laps, he finished in seventh place.

“I’m thrilled, to come out here and be competitive, eventually these young kids just get to be so good,” said Earnhardt. “So it was fun to be able to run with them tonight.”

Clinching the 12th and final spot in the playoffs was Sammy Smith, who finished in 15th. Smith entered the race with a 43-point lead over Ryan Sieg for the final spot and executed a clean race to clinch at Bristol.

Stage 1 Top 10 Results

1. Chandler Smith
2. Jesse Love
3. Sheldon Creed
4. AJ Allmendinger
5. Anthony Alfredo
6. Jeremy Clements
7. Cole Custer
8. Jeffery Earnhardt
9. Ryan Truex
10. Joe Graf Jr.

Stage 2 Top 10 Results

1. Jeremy Clements
2. Cole Custer
3. Ryan Truex
4. Sheldon Creed
5. Chandler Smith
6. Jesse Love
7. Riley Herbst
8. Sam Mayer
9. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
10. Parker Kligerman

Food City 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway Finishing Results