Cole Custer is going to lead the field to green in the Food City 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway after earning the pole award. Custer had a little bit of a rough last half of the NASCAR regular season. However, there has been some positive momentum in recent weeks, capped off with this pole award.
In his career, Cole Custer now has 17 pole awards in the Xfinity Series, his fourth of the season, and third all-time at Bristol. With two top-5s and two top-10s in his career at the track, Custer is hoping to earn his first Xfinity Series win on the famous half-mile.
This Food City 300 is going to be a lot of fun. Dale Jr. is in the house, the first race of the Xfinity Series Playoffs – Stone Cole Custer is going to try to get the job done under the lights.
The best part? Cole Custer is repping the Kevin Harvick throwback in this race. That might go a long way when trying to get the win at Bristol. The Closer has been pretty good here in the past.
Josh Berry is going to start on the front row with Custer. Followed by John Hunter Nemechek, Chandler Smith, Daniel Hemric, Sammy Smith, Ryan Sieg, Brandon Jones, Jeremy Clements, and Justin Allgaier in the top-10.
Meanwhile, Dale Jr. qualified P15 and will have a decent starting spot for tonight’s race. The last time he raced at Bristol in the Xfinity Series, Earnhardt finished P13 back in 2017
Cole Custer preparing for championship run
Of course, Cole Custer has his eyes focused on an Xfinity Series championship. Just two wins on the year at this point, and Custer is not satisfied. He would have liked to be in the position that John Hunter Nemechek is in, six wins and charging ahead.
However, he is still in the championship hunt. Custer is a Cup Series driver who has won at the Cup level. He needs to show that he is capable of racing at a high level, a championship level, in the Xfinity Series if he wants to be competitive in Cup ever again.
Now, he has had some starts with Rick Ware Racing this season. We know RWR signed Justin Haley to a full-time deal for 2024. Perhaps they double down and put Custer or another driver in the other car full-time instead of doing the part-time revolving door that is typical.
That is just speculation and open-thinking on my part. The only thing I know for sure is that RWR is running two cars next season.
For now, Cole Custer is going to buckle down and focus on picking up his first win at Bristol. He’s got lots of speed in the daytime, let’s see how it translates to the night.