‘It was unbelievable how fast we were,’ Cole Custer dominates the Fontana Xfinity race surviving three NASCAR overtimes

‘It was unbelievable how fast we were,’ Cole Custer dominates the Fontana Xfinity race surviving three NASCAR overtimes

Cole Custer

Three overtimes, 12 cautions, and more than three hours of official race time the Production Alliance 300 in Fontana had chaos written all over it. The three overtimes made drivers run an extra 15 laps beyond its scheduled distance of 150 circuits at the 2-mile track.

Californian native Cole Custer, who also was the only previous Fontan winner in the grid, dominated the Auto Club Speedway to win the Production Alliance 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series on Saturday in a thrilling last-lap finish toping Daytona Xfinity series winner Noah Gragson with a gap of 0.565s.

When the race started in mid-afternoon Cole Custer wouldn’t have expected to cross the finish line under the lights but he was in for a surprisingly long day. The only thing that was stopping  Cole Custer who led the pack for 80 of the 165 laps contested moving upfront from P4 was NASCAR’s policy which prevents the race from finishing under caution.

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Following four cautions in the Final 10 laps Cole Custer held his nerve and drove his SS-Green Light Racing Ford to victory holding off his rivals to secure his 10th Xfinity Series victory.

Find out what Cole Custer had to say about his victory in front of the home crowd

Cole Custer
Cole Custer

Cole Custer was quick to thank everyone who was involved in building his car saying the car run like a rocket ship all day. He added he feels great to win on his home turf and also shared his excitement about the Sunday’s Cup Series Race, Wise Power 400.

“Man, it was just an awesome car. That thing was just a rocket ship all day. I can’t thank Bobby Dotter enough—everybody that was involved in this car,” Cole Custer said.

“It was unbelievable how fast we were… It’s awesome to win at home—can’t wait for tomorrow,” Cole Custer added.

Noah Gragson
Noah Gragson

Noah Gragson who won the Xfinity Cup series race last week in Daytona missed out on a consecutive win as Cole Custer turned out to be a little too fast to beat even after multiple restarts. In the post-race interview, Noah Gragson congratulated Cole Custer for the win and also shred his appreciation towards Justin Allgaier who had an amazing race that saw him finish P8 starting the race at P20. Noah Gragson also revealed that struggles following the temperature drop the part in his loss.

“I felt like the car was close all day, just struggled with the cloud cover and the temperature change—too loose or too tight. Hats off to all the guys on the 07 car and Cole Custer. He was really fast today,” Noah Gragson said.

Trevor Bayne, the 2011 Daytona 500 winner, ran third in his first Xfinity Series start since a one-off with Josh Berry and Anthony Alfredo completes the top 5. Pole sitter AJ Allmendinger recovered from an unscheduled pit stop for a loose wheel to finish at P7. 

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