Rookie Custer Gets First Cup Win In Wild Kentucky Finish

It may be Cole Custer’s first year in the NASCAR Cup Series, but he did not drive the final lap at Kentucky Speedway like a rookie on Sunday.

Custer raced the leaders four-wide on the outside as they passed the white flag to start the last lap of the Quaker State 400, with Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex, Jr. and Ryan Blaney stacked up underneath him.

Custer held tough on the outside in his No. 41 Ford Mustang, and cleared the other three cars as they raced through turns one and two.

The 22-year-old then held off Truex, Jr. over the final half-lap to score the win, becoming the first rookie to win at the Sparta, Kentucky race track – and the first Cup Series rookie winner since 2016.

“It’s unbelievable,” the Ladera Ranch, California native said. “We had a great car all day, one of the best cars I’ve ever driven in my life. It was really hard to pass. It was hard to get to the front. Once we got there we took advantage of it and I just can’t thank everybody at the shop. That’s probably the best car I’ve ever driven in my life – no lie or anything.

“I can’t thank Gene Haas enough and everybody at HaasTooling.com for taking a chance on me. I think the start of the year was not what we wanted, we were definitely far off at some places, but I think we’re starting to put it all together and I’m looking forward to it.”

Custer restarted from the outside of the third row on the final restart with two laps to go. As Harvick and Truex, Jr. battled for the lead, Custer got a big run on the outside with a shove from behind from Matt DiBenedetto. Truex, Jr. moved up to try to block the run, stacking the top four up.

As they raced off turn four coming to the white flag, Custer got the run on the outside in clean air, while Ryan Blaney looked to the inside of the leaders, going four-wide on the apron as they crossed the finish line to start the final lap.

Custer completed the pass in turn one, with Truex, Jr. following into second while Harvick’s Ford slowed with tire smoke after contact from Blaney. That contact allowed Custer and Truex, Jr. to get away.

Truex, Jr. tried to close on the leader, but to no avail, as Custer drove away to the victory.

“I knew I just had to get to the top,” said Custer. “The top rolled pretty good and once I got past and I was like in third I was like, ‘I’ve just got to take a shot and do whatever I can here.’ And it ended up the 4 (Harvick) and the 19 (Truex, Jr.) got together a little bit and I was able to take advantage of it. It was just an unbelievable car and I was able to take advantage of it. I just can’t thank all my guys and everybody at SHR enough, and everybody at Roush Yates Engines – just an absolutely amazing car.”

Custer’s first victory comes in just his 20th career series start. His previous best finish was a fifth place last week at Indianapolis. The win locks him into playoffs with just nine regular season races remaining. It also locks him into Wednesday night’s All-Star Race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

“Yeah, it’s unbelievable. I get the neon lights under the car now and everything,” Custer said. “Hopefully, I even make it to Bristol because I’m gonna party pretty good. This is unbelievable – first win. I didn’t think we were gonna come here and win. I was looking for a solid run – pretty unbelievable.”

Martin Truex, Jr., who led three times for 57 laps on the day and was in the hunt for his second win of the season, had to settle for the runner-up spot.

“Just trying to get in line behind the 4 (Harvick) off of (turn) two there and got into him a little bit,” said Truex, Jr. “Then got outside him because I screwed that up and went into (turn) three and I knew he was going to run me up pretty high. I was up in the loose stuff pretty good there, but I was able to hang onto it. The 41 (Custer) came with a big run and I didn’t see him coming. Unfortunate, but we had a hell of a battle today.”

DiBenedetto came away with a third finish, marking his second top 5 of the season.

“We had two monstrous restarts and then pushed Cole to the win there, which kind of felt cool,” said DiBenedetto. “Good for him. Congrats, but this is a big race for us having the Menards/Quaker State Ford Mustang in the Quaker State 400, so I wish we could have won it, but circumstances didn’t work out. We’ll take a strong finish and a really fast car.”

Kevin Harvick, who looked close to scoring his first career Kentucky Speedway victory, came home in fourth place in the end.

“Our Ford Mustang was not very good today, but we got a good break with the caution,” said Harvick. “I had a couple good restarts there and got the car better, but still just not where we needed to be – but the restarts worked out in our favor and we were able to get the lead and Martin just misjudged there on the backstretch and got me sideways. I got out of the gas and that just brought everybody into the picture and then we were four-wide on the front straightaway here and the 12 (Blaney) hit the drain and came up and hit the side of the car and then I couldn’t see, so, yeah, it got wild and that’s what you’re supposed to do.

“I’m just really happy for Cole Custer and everybody on the No. 41 Haas Automation Ford Mustang. That’s pretty cool to get your first win. As much as I would have loved to win, I’m glad that we kept it in the company.”

While the race ran mostly clean early on, it was a flurry of caution flags near the end that started the chain of events leading up to the final restart. The first occurred on a restart on lap 248, when Jimmie Johnson tried to block a move to the inside from Brad Keselowski. The two made contact, sending Johnson’s Chevy spinning into turn one.

On the ensuring restart, Harvick stacked the leaders three wide on the inside, bypassing Truex, Jr. and Blaney to take the lead.

With the laps winding down, Truex, Jr. closed on Harvick, and was challenging for the lead with six laps to go when a spin by Matt Kenseth brought out the final caution, setting up the wild fight for the win.

Defending race winner Kurt Busch finished in fifth, with Blaney, Christopher Bell, Aric Almirola, Keselowski and Tyler Reddick rounding out the top 10.

Dawsonville, Georgia’s Chase Elliott finished in 23rd on the lead lap.

NASCAR Cup Series
Kentucky Speedway – Sparta, KY
Quaker State 400 – July 12, 2020

1. (29) Cole Custer #, Ford, 267.
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3. (10) Matt DiBenedetto, Ford, 267.
4. (3) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 267.
5. (7) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 267.
6. (11) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 267.
7. (34) Christopher Bell #, Toyota, 267.
8. (4) Aric Almirola, Ford, 267.
9. (6) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 267.
10. (24) Tyler Reddick #, Chevrolet, 267.
11. (21) William Byron, Chevrolet, 267.
12. (12) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 267.
13. (19) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 267.
14. (15) Clint Bowyer, Ford, 267.
15. (2) Joey Logano, Ford, 267.
16. (33) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 267.
17. (23) Ryan Newman, Ford, 267.
18. (20) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 267.
19. (5) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 267.
20. (13) Chris Buescher, Ford, 267.
21. (1) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 267.
22. (16) Erik Jones, Toyota, 267.
23. (8) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 267.
24. (30) Michael McDowell, Ford, 267.
25. (17) Matt Kenseth, Chevrolet, 267.
26. (37) Daniel Suarez, Toyota, 267.
27. (18) Bubba Wallace, Chevrolet, 265.
28. (27) Corey LaJoie, Ford, 264.
29. (14) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Chevrolet, 264.
30. (36) J.J. Yeley(i), Ford, 260.
31. (31) Brennan Poole #, Chevrolet, 259.
32. (26) Josh Bilicki(i), Chevrolet, 257.
33. (25) Garrett Smithley(i), Chevrolet, 257.
34. (35) Joey Gase(i), Ford, 257.
35. (28) Quin Houff #, Chevrolet, 255.
36. (22) John Hunter Nemechek #, Ford, Accident, 248.
37. (38) Timmy Hill(i), Toyota, Electrical, 170.
38. (32) Ryan Preece, Chevrolet, Transmission, 159.

Average Speed of Race Winner: 133.636 mph.

Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 59 Mins, 49 Secs. Margin of Victory: .271 Seconds.

Caution Flags: 8 for 42 laps.

Lead Changes: 13 among 9 drivers.

Lap Leaders: K. Busch 1-9;A. Almirola 10-137;R. Blaney 138-149;M. DiBenedetto 150;B. Keselowski 151-180;M. Truex Jr. 181-219;B. Keselowski 220-223;C. Custer # 224-227;W. Byron 228-231;M. Truex Jr. 232-248;R. Blaney 249-254;K. Harvick 255-265;M. Truex Jr. 266;C. Custer # 267.

Leaders Summary: (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Aric Almirola 1 time for 128 laps; Martin Truex Jr. 3 times for 57 laps; Brad Keselowski 2 times for 34 laps; Ryan Blaney 2 times for 18 laps; Kevin Harvick 1 time for 11 laps; Kyle Busch 1 time for 9 laps; Cole Custer # 2 times for 5 laps; William Byron 1 time for 4 laps; Matt DiBenedetto 1 time for 1 lap.

Stage #1 Top Ten: 10,9,22,21,12,4,88,1,14,19

Stage #2 Top Ten: 2,12,41,22,19,88,3,48,21,20

Top 10 in Points: 1. Kevin Harvick – 675 (4 Wins); 2. Brad Keselowski – 587 (2 Wins); 3. Ryan Blaney – 580 (1 Win); 4. Chase Elliott – 575 (1 Win); 5. Joey Logano – 564 (2 Wins); 6. Denny Hamlin – 553 (4 Wins); 7. Martin Truex, Jr. – 543 (1 Win); 8. Aric Almirola – 504; 9. Alex Bowman – 498 (1 Win); 10. Kurt Busch – 492.