Custer Wins Bristol, Steals NXS Regular Season Title

Cole Custer celebrates his win in Friday's Food City 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway. (HHP/Jacy Norgaard photo)

BRISTOL, Tenn. – Cole Custer not only collected a sword with his Food City 300 victory Friday night at Bristol Motor Speedway, he captured the NASCAR Xfinity Series regular season championship as well.

With a dominant second-half car, leading three times for a race-high 104 laps, Custer cruised to victory at The Last Great Colosseum and overcame a 43-point deficit to incoming point leader Justin Allgaier.

After Allgaier – who was involved in three separate incidents – ultimately free-fell to 10 laps down in 30th, Custer’s goal was simple: get to victory lane and bank a combined total of 20 playoff points for doing so.

He did just that, winning for the second time this season and earning the No. 2 seed for the Xfinity Series playoffs.

“Man, what a car. What a race,” said Custer after climbing from the No. 00 HighPoin.com Ford Mustang. “These guys did such a great job with this thing. I can’t thank HighPoint.com enough. Every race we’ve wanted to do better with them onboard, and this was finally a race where we put it all together.

“It was just an unbelievable car. I could really drive through the field and do everything I needed,” he added. “It’s a real testament to this team of what we can bring to the playoffs.”

Though Custer made the late stages of the race look effortless around the .533-mile concrete high banks, it was far from simple early for the defending series champion.

A flat right-front tire on lap three for the Ladera Ranch, Calif., native put him into the outside wall and cost him a heap of track position as a result.

But Custer’s team brought him down pit road, put four fresh tires on the car, and let Custer go to work.

He raced his way back up to seventh by the end of the first 85-lap stage, drove past Sam Mayer for the top spot on lap 151, finished second to Jeremy Clements in stage two, and then took the lead for good with 92 laps left after sweeping past Sheldon Creed exiting turn four when Creed bobbled on corner exit.

Cole Custer (00) races Sheldon Creed Friday night at Bristol Motor Speedway. (HHP/Jim Fluharty photo)

From there, Custer was unstoppable despite being on 140-lap tires by the end of the race, forced to go long on his final set after losing a set at the start due to his early troubles.

“It’s unbelievable. These guys never give up,” said Custer of the effort his team put in to rally back. “It’s been a tough month, but to be able to lead into the playoffs like this, we’re going to really bring it to [the rest of the field], I feel like.”

The final 94 laps of Friday night’s 300-lap race ran caution free, with seven total yellow flags slowing the pace. Three of those saw Allgaier’s night go from bad to worse to finally worst by the end of it.

After leading the first 60 laps, Allgaier was collected in a lap-51 crash with Austin Green and Parker Retzlaff, clipping Green’s car after it popped the wall at the exit of turn two and nearly shearing the rear bumper cover off the No. 7 Brandt Chevrolet Camaro.

His team ripped the cover off, allowing Allgaier to continue, but putting him at the tail end of the lead lap. Allgaier rallied up to 18th by the end of stage one and was battling for third with Sheldon Creed on lap 153, when the two banged doors on the backstretch, sending Allgaier spinning into the inside wall.

Severe splitter damage at that point prompted major repairs, but also led to a penalty for removing equipment from the pit box after Allgaier ran over one of the team’s electric saws leaving pit road and dragging it halfway around the track underneath his car.

A lap-199 spin in turn two was the proverbial nail in the coffin for Allgaier, who fell to second place in the final regular season standings in a dramatic and grinding twist.

Meanwhile, Creed finished .896 seconds behind Custer for his 13th career runner-up, still seeking his maiden Xfinity Series triumph.

It set a NASCAR record for the most second-place finishes without a win by one driver in one of the three national touring series. James Hylton was second 12 times prior to his first NASCAR Cup Series win.

Creed’s teammate Chandler Smith crossed third in a drag race to the finish line, followed by rookie Jesse Love and Ryan Truex, who gave Joe Gibbs Racing three of the top five finishing positions.

Brandon Jones, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Ryan Sieg, Sam Mayer, and A.J. Allmendinger closed out the top 10.

Jones and Sieg both needed a win to qualify for the Xfinity Series playoffs, but failed to accomplish the feat, allowing Sammy Smith to earn the 12th and final postseason berth by 36 points over Sieg.

Mayer led 55 laps in the first half of the race, but lost track position at the second stage break and could never reclaim his earlier speed after that.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series playoffs begin Saturday, Sept. 28 at Kansas Speedway with the running of the Kansas Lottery 300, live on CW Network, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.

Custer, Allgaier, Chandler Smith, Austin Hill, Creed, Allmendinger, Love, Herbst, Parker Kligerman, Shane van Gisbergen, Mayer, and Sammy Smith are the championship-eligible drivers entering the Round of 12.