After getting a shot with a full-time ride in the Cup series with Stewart-Haas Racing in 2020, Custer tried to make the most of it. He had won nine Xfinity races in 100 starts and finished runner-up in the championship standings for two consecutive seasons.
However, after earning one win in three Cup seasons including a career-best 16th in the series standings, SHR opted to move Custer back down to Xfinity in 2023.
Likely not the best move for a driver’s ego, Custer still embraced the challenge, and it turned out to be a career renaissance. He won three races this year, including last Saturday’s season finale which earned him his first NASCAR championship.
In fact, Custer and his Xfinity teammate Riley Herbst were the only SHR drivers to win races this season in what turned out to be a down year for the organization’s four Cup teams.
A calculated move
Team co-owner Tony Stewart praised Custer’s resilience and although the decision had already been made to have Custer run another season in Xfinity in 2025, the Hall of Fame driver believes Custer is well on his way back to NASCAR’s elite division.
“It was a calculated decision to move him back, and it was for him to gain confidence,” Stewart explained. “His confidence has grown, the leadership side is coming into play, as well.
“I think it’s a valid question that, yeah, when a driver makes it to the big show and then has to step back one series, there’s a lot of things that could go wrong. But there was a reason we made that decision.
“It’s character-building. And it’s like I told him (after he won Saturday), ‘This is why we did what we did, and this is what you’re doing, the steps that you’re making and the progress you’ve made this year is exactly what we were hoping for.’ ”
Custer, 25, said that while he is still young and hopefully has a long career ahead of him, he admitted he “got knocked down a little bit” from the demotion back to Xfinity.
Photo by: Matthew T. Thacker / NKP / Motorsport Images
Cole Custer, Stewart-Haas Racing, Haas Automation Ford Mustang
“When you go to the Cup level, it’s so competitive. Things can just not go right for a few years. It’s just how it is, how tight it is,” he said. “I worked with a great group of guys up there, but how it all works out, sometimes it just doesn’t work.
“To come down here and still have people believe in you, work with (crew chief) J.T. (Jonathan Toney) and really grind it out. We really didn’t start out the year very good.
“To come back here and really just bring a bullet and everything that we’ve learned throughout the year and communicated, I probably asked J.T. 10,000 questions this year, and he’s truly looked into every single one.”
While Custer didn’t win seven races like his 2019 Xfinity season, Custer’s development on the track this season, and growth in maturity and leadership helped provide SHR its season highlight.
“Being a part of a new group and being able to build that throughout the year, that’s one of the most proud things I’ve been a part of because I feel like they leaned on me to be a leader,” Custer said.
“I feel like it’s a very proud moment to be able to build what we built this year and go from a team that was solid at the start of the year but build it into a championship team.”
Those traits are why Stewart believes Custer’s NASCAR future remains bright.
“He’s doing the right things. He will end up in a Cup car at some point I feel like in the future,” Stewart said. “He’s doing the work. He’s been a great leader at the shop with these guys.
“I have the utmost confidence that he will be back in a Cup car at some point.”