Cole Custer Punches His Ticket to Homestead's Xfinity Final Four at Texas

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FORT WORTH, TX – RIS – Cole Custer passed Tyler Reddick in a three-lap shootout at Saturday’s O’Reilly 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series race and went on to assure his place in the final championship four at Homestead in two weeks by winning going away. 

 Reddick led the field to green with two laps left, after the 13th caution, and held the top spot until Custer mounted a strong run off Turn 2 on Lap 200. The cars made side-to-side contact on the backstretch before Reddick surrendered the position, and Custer held on to win by .162 seconds, the third closest finish in a Xfinity Series race at Texas.

With his first victory of the season and the second of his career, Custer is the first of the Round of 8 drivers to clinch a chance at the championship in the season finale.

“I can’t believe it,” Custer said. “I did all I could and drove in deeper than I had all weekend into Turn 1 (on the final lap) trying to get on (Reddick’s) bumper, and it worked out.

“We’re going to Homestead, and I think we have a great chance to win it. It’s just awesome. We haven’t won this year, but we’ve been so close. It’s been frustrating, but we’ve kept going. There’s no better time to do it.”

Championship favorite Christopher Bell continued having bad luck on Saturday.  Two weeks ago at Kansas Speedway, in the first race in the Round of 8, Justin Allgaier wiped him out in Turn 2 of the first lap. On Saturday, after winning the pole, Bell spun out of control—again in Turn 2 of the first lap.  He was able to finish the first two stages, but disaster soon struck again.

 Unfortunately, his recovery was short-lived. The end of his day came on Lap 133 when eventual third-place finisher Austin Cindric pushed up the track slightly, clipped the back-left quarter of Bell’s No. 20 Toyota and sent it sliding into the outside wall.

Resulting suspension damage knocked Bell out of the race in 32nd place at the speedway closest to his Norman, Oklahoma, home.

“It caught me off guard,” Bell said of the Lap 1 spin. “You saw the same thing from the No. 7 (Allgaier) at Kansas. I didn’t feel like I was up to speed at all. The next thing I knew, I spun out.

“I don’t know, it has to be the tire combination. It’s tricky. There wasn’t much room for error.”

With the Playoff field to be cut from eight drivers to four next Saturday at Phoenix, Bell Faces a 34-point deficit to Daniel Hemric (10th Saturday), who holds fourth place in the standings. A six-time winner as a Sunoco rookie this season, Bell, for practical purposes, must win again.

Hemric won the first stage. But his luck soon took a turn for the worse. Hemric fell back after a Lap 194 restart and was knocked sideways when Richard Childress Racing teammate Shane Lee lost control underneath Hemric’s Chevrolet in Turn 3.

Aside from Custer, no one in the top eight has much breathing room heading to Phoenix. Reddick has a 20-point edge over fifth-place Allgaier, who came home fifth on Saturday. Veteran Elliott Sadler, who ran eighth, is 13 points ahead of Allgaier, his JR Motorsports teammate. Hemric has a 12-point cushion.

Fin Str Car Driver Team Laps Stage 1 Pos Pts Status Tms Laps Playoff Pts
1 3 00 Cole Custer (P) Autodesk Ford 200 2 1 59 Running 4 16 6
2 4 9 Tyler Reddick # (P) BurgerFi Chevrolet 200 3 4 50 Running 4 54
3 8 22 Austin Cindric # (P) Discount Tire Ford 200 34 Running
4 10 42 John Hunter Nemechek ROMCO Equipment Co. Chevrolet 200 9 35 Running 1 6
5 5 7 Justin Allgaier (P) Suave MEN Chevrolet 200 7 2 45 Running 2 37
6 14 19 Brandon Jones Interstate Batteries Toyota 200 10 10 33 Running 1 4
7 7 2 Matt Tifft (P) Anderson's Maple Syrup Chevrolet 200 6 7 39 Running
8 13 1 Elliott Sadler (P) OneMain Financial Chevrolet 200 5 6 40 Running
9 12 23 Spencer Gallagher Allegiant Chevrolet 200 28 Running
10 9 21 Daniel Hemric (P) South Point Hotel & Casino Chevrolet 200 1 8 40 Running 3 42 1
11 23 4 Ross Chastain teamjdmotorsports.com Chevrolet 200 26 Running
12 17 39 Ryan Sieg ETBU Chevrolet 200 25 Running
13 38 60 Ty Majeski Ford Ford 200 24 Running
14 18 51 Jeremy Clements RepairableVehicles.com Chevrolet 200 9 25 Running
15 22 38 JJ Yeley Sinclair/Raging Wire Chevrolet 200 22 Running
16 16 5 Michael Annett Pilot Flying J Chevrolet 200 21 Running
17 19 40 Chad Finchum # Smithbilt Homes/The Preserve Toyota 199 20 Running
18 21 90 Brandon Brown Coalition to Salute Americas Heroes Chevrolet 199 19 Running
19 29 8 Ray Black II ISOKERN Fireplaces & Chimneys Chevrolet 199 18 Running
20 24 0 Garrett Smithley Equipment World/Trophy Tractor Chevrolet 198 17 Running
21 34 45 Bayley Currey(i) Prevagen Toyota 197 0 Running
22 30 35 Joey Gase Louisiana Organ Procurement Agency 197 15 Running
23 2 3 Shane Lee Childress Vineyards Chevrolet 197 14 Running 1 6
24 32 52 David Starr Whataburger Chevrolet 196 13 Running
25 33 76 Spencer Boyd # Grunt Style Chevrolet 195 12 Running
26 26 15 Quin Houff teamjdmotorsports.com Chevrolet 193 11 Running
27 36 78 Vinnie Miller # CorvetteParts.net/JW Transport LLC Chevrolet 193 10 Running
28 37 74 Mike Harmon The Journey Home Project Chevrolet 192 9 Running
29 15 16 Ryan Reed Drive Down A1C Lilly Diabetes Ford 186 8 Accident
30 20 36 Alex Labbe # AlphaPrimeUSA.com Chevrolet 176 7 Running
31 6 18 Ryan Preece Rheem/Johns Mansville Toyota 139 8 3 17 Accident
32 1 20 Christopher Bell # (P) GameStop NBA 2K19 Toyota 133 4 5 18 Accident 1 35
33 11 11 Ryan Truex LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet 120 4 Accident
34 35 66 Bobby Earnhardt Copeland Insurance Toyota 104 3 Accident
35 27 13 Timmy Hill OCR Gaz Bar Toyota 56 2 Vibration
36 25 01 BJ McLeod teamjdmotorsports.com Chevrolet 44 1 Electrical
37 28 99 Stephen Leicht Chevrolet 32 1 Fuel Pump
38 31 93 Jeff Green RSS Racing Chevrolet 10 1 Brakes
39 39 89 Morgan Shepherd Vizone RV Chevrolet 4 1 Electrical
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 34 Mins, 5 Secs. Average Speed: 116.82 MPH Margin of Victory: 0.162 Seconds

Race Comments: Cole Custer won the O'Reilly Auto Parts Challenge at Texas Motor Speedway, his second victory in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Prior to the start of the race, the following cars dropped to the rear of the field under penalty for the reasons indicated: Nos. 4, 60 (unapproved adjustments), 22, 35, 45, 52, 89 (backup car).
Failed to Qualify: None.
Caution Flags: 13 for 54 laps; Laps: 2-4 (#1, 16, 42, 18, 7, 00, 22, 20, 23 Incident Turn 1 [None]); 15-18 (#66 Spin Turn 4 [74]); 22-24 (#11, 39 Incident Turn 2 [66]); 47-51 (Stage 1 Conclusion [8]); 82-85 (#9, 35, 8 Incident Turn 2 [None]); 92-96 (Stage 2 Conclusion [40]); 98-100 (#5, 19, 00, 60 Incident Turn 2 [8]); 126-130 (#11 Incident Turn 1 [40]); 134-137 (#22, 20 Incident Turn 4 [35]); 140-144 (#18, 19 Incident Turn 2 [90]); 148-151 (#8, 35 Incident Backstretch [45]); 189-193 (#16, 60 Incident Backstretch [51]); 195-198 (#3, 21, 0, 39, 23, 4, 60 Incident Turn 4 [38]).
Lead Changes: 17 among 9 drivers; C. Bell # (P) 0; S. Lee 1-6; T. Reddick # (P) 7-24; D. Hemric (P) 25-51; T. Reddick # (P) 52-80; C. Custer (P) 81-85; T. Reddick # (P) 86; C. Custer (P) 87-92; C. Bell # (P) 93-127; B. Jones 128-131; D. Hemric (P) 132-138; J. Allgaier (P) 139-144; D. Hemric (P) 145-152; J. Allgaier (P) 153-183; J. Nemechek 184-189; C. Custer (P) 190-193; T. Reddick # (P) 194-199; C. Custer (P) 200.
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series
Next Race: November 10, 2018 - ISM Raceway

Ron Fleshman

RIS NASCAR Editor.  Has been with RIS since the middle 90's. Writes on each of the three main series of NASCAR.

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Volume 2018, Issue 11, Posted 11:12 PM, 11.03.2018