Cole Custer Wins His Second Xfinity Race of the Season at Richmond

Credit Steve Helber/AP Sports Photo

RICHMOND, VA - RIS - Cole Custer pased Autin Cindric with 20 laps to go and won the Toyota Owner's 250 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Richmond Raceway. Custer was openly hoping for rain to shorten the NASCAR Xfinity race at Richmond Raceway on Friday night. Rain was predicted by watching the radar, but after getting beat by Cindric on the last restart, he was desperately hoping for the rain to stay away.   The rain stayed away after passing Cincric and he pulled away to victory.

“At that last restart, I tried something a little bit different and it didn’t work out. I knew I had like 25 laps, but then it started raining a little bit and I was like, ‘Man, we might not even make it to the end so I have to get by quick here,’” Custer said.

Cindric had grabbed the lead on a restart with 25 laps to go, but Custer regained the lead five laps later and pulled away  for his second victory of the season. The victory also earned Custer a $100,000 bonus as the top finisher among four drivers who qualified. The top four finishers in this race will be eligible for the bonus when the series races next at Talladega Superspeedway in two weeks.

Justin Allgaier dominated the first half of the race and finished third, followed by Tyler Reddick and Ryan Sieg.

Allgaier had the lead until Custer passed him on the inside after he pitted for tires under a green flag and Allgaier opted to stay out. It was a calculated risk for Allgaier, who won the first stage and was hoping that rain in the forecast and on the radar might arrive in time to shorten the race with him in the lead. By NASCAR rules, if the first two stages of a race are complete, the race is official.

But while some rain came, it was not enough to cause the race to be stopped.

“It was so frustrating. They kept telling me it was 20 laps away,” Custer said of the rain. “It never came. … This one means a lot. We haven’t had a short track win yet. We’ve struggled a lot at short tracks. This helps. This definitely means a lot.”

Cindric said he had some raindrops on his windshield after he took the lead and “I turned into the most religious person you’ll ever know praying for it to downpour.”

Allgaier started seventh but worked his way to the front to win the 75-lap first stage, his third stage victory in the last two races. Custer won the second stage when he pulled away on a restart with four laps to go in the stage.

Custer led 122 laps and Allgaier led 86.

“The pit call that we made at the end of the (second) stage, it worked out obviously in our favor, but I pushed really hard to try to get back up to the front and just didn’t have quite enough there are the end to do anything,” Allgaier said.

The race was especially hard on Christopher Bell, who was running near the front in search of his second consecutive victory when he spun, bringing out a caution 10 laps before the end of the second stage. Stopping for repairs put Bell back to 16th position, but when the race went green with 90 laps to go, he very quickly worked his way into contention, running third behind Custer and Allgaier.

But when David Starr spun with under 40 laps to go and everyone pitted, Bell dropped from third to 10th. He finished 16th.

Virginia native Elliott Sadler of Emporia came out of retirement for the race and finished 12th.

Fin Str Car Driver Team Laps Stage 1 Pos Pts Status Tms Laps Playoff Pts
1 4 00 Cole Custer Haas Automation Ford 250 3 1 58 Running 3 122 6
2 5 22 Austin Cindric LTi Printing Ford 250 7 2 48 Running 1 7
3 7 7 Justin Allgaier Brandt Professional Agriculture Chevrolet 250 1 44 Running 2 86 1
4 2 2 Tyler Reddick Anderson's Maple Syrup Chevrolet 250 6 8 41 Running
5 13 39 Ryan Sieg Larry?s Hard Lemonade Chevrolet 250 5 38 Running
6 10 8 Zane Smith PatientPop Chevrolet 250 8 4 41 Running
7 11 23 John Hunter Nemechek # Falci Adaptive Motorsports Chevrolet 250 5 3 44 Running
8 9 98 Chase Briscoe # Nutri Chomps Ford 250 9 7 35 Running
9 1 18 Riley Herbst Monster Energy Toyota 250 28 Running 1 1
10 14 11 Justin Haley # LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet 250 10 28 Running
11 15 4 Ross Chastain teamjdmotorsports.com Chevrolet 250 26 Running
12 27 10 Elliott Sadler Nutrien Ag Solutions Chevrolet 250 25 Running
13 6 1 Michael Annett Pilot Flying J Chevrolet 250 24 Running 1 2
14 38 21 Kaz Grala HotScream Chevrolet 250 23 Running
15 33 90 Dillon Bassett Bassett Gutters and More Chevrolet 250 22 Running
16 3 20 Christopher Bell Ruud Toyota 250 2 30 Running 2 32
17 17 08 Gray Gaulding ACI Chevrolet 250 20 Running
18 32 01 Stephen Leicht teamjdmotorsports.com Chevrolet 250 19 Running
19 20 0 Garrett Smithley teamjdmotorsports.com Chevrolet 250 18 Running
20 34 93 Brandon Brown # W.G. Speeks/Carrier Chevrolet 250 17 Running
21 19 07 Ray Black II ISOKERN Fireplaces & Chimney/Scuba Life 250 16 Running
22 12 9 Noah Gragson Switch Chevrolet 249 4 6 27 Running
23 28 35 Joey Gase Donate Life Virginia Toyota 249 14 Running
24 23 15 Tyler Matthews LineTec Services Chevrolet 248 13 Running
25 21 36 Donald Theetge Circuit Acura/Mercedes-Benz St-Nicolas 247 12 Running
26 24 66 Colin Garrett Racing for Heroes Toyota 247 11 Running
27 26 78 Vinnie Miller Koolbox Chevrolet 246 10 Running
28 29 5 Matt Mills J.F. Electric Chevrolet 245 9 Running
29 22 52 David Starr Extreme Kleaner Chevrolet 245 8 Running
30 30 99 BJ McLeod JW Transport LLC Toyota 245 7 Running
31 35 74 Mike Harmon Woobies Shoes Chevrolet 243 6 Running
32 36 17 Kyle Weatherman Chevrolet 237 5 Running
33 8 19 Brandon Jones Juniper Toyota 175 10 9 7 Engine
34 25 42 Chad Finchum Smithbilt Homes Toyota 119 3 Brakes
35 18 51 Jeremy Clements RepairableVehicles.com Chevrolet 112 2 Engine
36 16 86 Mason Diaz Solid Rock Carriers Chevrolet 63 1 Engine
37 37 13 Timmy Hill Richie Anderson Memorial/CrashClaimsR.US 15 1 Vibration
38 31 38 Jeff Green RSS Racing Chevrolet 10 1 Engine
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 4 Mins, 17 Secs. Average Speed: 90.519 MPH Margin of Victory: 2.639 Seconds

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 2019, Issue 4, Posted 11:17 PM, 04.12.2019