(photo courtesy Leon Hammack)
Date: March 25, 2017
Event: Service King 300 (Round 5 of 33)
Series: NASCAR XFINITY Series
Location: Auto Club Speedway (2-mile oval)
Format: 150 laps, broken into three stages (35 laps/35 laps/80 laps)
Start/Finish: 4th/35th (Running, completed 106 of 150 laps)
Point Standing: 12th (86 points, 103 out of first)
Race Winner: Kyle Larson of Chip Ganassi Racing (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Winner: Kyle Busch of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)
Stage 2 Winner: Kyle Busch of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)
Stage 1 Recap (Laps 1-35):
● Cole Custer started 4th, finished 8th.
● Custer noted a tight-handling condition that progressed through Stage 1.
● After the caution period on lap 30, Custer restarted the final two laps of Stage 1 in the sixth position.
Stage 2 Recap (Laps 36-70):
● Started 6th, finished 8th.
● Custer continued to battle a tight-handling condition through Stage 2.
● Custer ran consistently in the top 10.
Final Stage Recap (Laps 71-150):
● Started 6th, finished 35th.
● After slight air pressure adjustments, Custer raced his way back to the third position.
● During the lap 96 caution, Custer opted to pit and a jack malfunction caused Custer to restart in the 17th position.
● On lap 106, Custer was involved in an accident sending him into the wall and ending his day.
Notes:
● Custer earned his career-best NASCAR XFINITY Series qualifying effort.
● Custer earned points in Stage 1 and Stage 2.
Cole Custer, driver of the No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
Walk us through today’s race.
“I just got hooked going into the corner. I think I hit him (Ryan Sieg) a tick just on my side draft coming off of four and then he decided to hook us going into turn one and wreck us. It is what it is, but we’ll just move on. We had an awesome Haas Automation Ford Mustang. I thought we could have competed for a win there. We had a bad pit stop, but we were going to work our way back up there.”
Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR XFINITY Series schedule is the My Bariatric Solutions 300 on Saturday, April 8 at Texas Motor Speedway. The race starts at 1:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by Fox.
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
