A late-race spin and caution sent the race into a two-lap overtime with Custer in the lead, but John Hunter Nemechek quickly moved out front on the restart.
As the field entered Turn 1, Custer regained the momentum, went to the inside of Justin Allgaier and Nemechek in a three-wide move and came away with the lead. As Nemechek hit the wall on the final lap, Custer held off Sheldon Creed by 0.601 seconds to earn the win and claim the 2023 series title.
The win is the third of the season for Custer, who’s other two victories came on road courses at Portland and Chicago. It’s also the 13th win of the career for the 25-year-old native of Ladera Ranch, Calif.
After earning one win in three full-time seasons in the Cup series, Stewart-Haas Racing moved Custer back down to Xfinity Series this year. With Sunday’s Cup season finale remaining, Custer and his Xfinity teammate Riley Herbst are the only drivers to register wins for SHR this season.
“I thought it was over,” Custer said of the final restart. “I mean, went from first to third, and I was able to shift the car all night. And Doug Yates horsepower worked out, pulled me off the corner.
“I can’t believe we won that thing after going back to third on that restart. I can’t say enough about these guys. We started the year off and it was a struggle and we had to kind of dig deep with each other, really talk about how to get better and to see how much this group has grown through the year.”
Asked about what he had to prove moving to the Xfinity Series this season, Custer said, “I mean, you definitely get knocked down a little bit. You just want to prove that you can go out there and do it.
I think these guys have just really always believed in me all year, and I just can’t thank them enough for giving me really fast race cars and still believing in me when things weren’t going great.”
Allgaier ended up third, Herbst fourth and Sam Mayer rounded out the top five.
Completing the top-10 were Josh Berry, Austin Hill, Chandler Smith, Sammy Smith and Kaz Grala.
Stage 1
Nemechek passed Hill with 13 of 45 laps remaining to take the lead and easily held off Custer to take the Stage 1 win. Chandler Smith was third, Hill fourth and Mayer rounded out the top five.
Allgaier recovered from an early-race spin while racing Nemechek for position to finish seventh.
Stage 2
Custer took the Stage 2 win as he was leading when a caution was displayed when Derek Krause wrecked with five of 45 laps remaining. Mayer was second, Nemechek third, Hill fourth and Chandler Smith completed the top five.
Stage 3
During the break between Stages 2 and 3, all of the lead-lap cars pit for tires and fuel with Custer first off pit road. Custer led Mayer and Hill with 91 laps remaining in the race.
Nemechek quickly powered past Custer on the outside to reclaim the lead shortly after the restart.
Creed, looking for his first series win, got around Nemechek to take the lead for the first time in the race with 73 laps left. Three laps later, Nemechek went to the inside of Creed in Turn 4 and reclaimed the top spot.
Myatt Snider spun and hit the wall to bring out a caution with just over 60 laps to go and sent all the lead-lap cars down pit road for new tires and fuel to make it to the end of the race.
Nemechek was first off pit road and when the race resumed with 58 laps to go, the Championship 4 contenders ran in the top four positions on the restart.
With 43 laps to go, Custer ran down Nemechek, went to his inside and came away with the lead as Chandler Smith ran third.
After 170 laps, Custer maintained a small but steady lead over Nemechek as Allgaier moved into third and Mayer fourth – once again putting all four Championship 4 drivers in the top four positions.
Connor Mosack hit the Turn 3 wall hard on lap 181 to bring out the seventh caution of the race and sent the lead-lap cars down pit road for new tires.
Hemric was first off pit road thanks to a two-tire stop, followed by Custer – the first driver on four new tires – Allgaier, Nemechek, Hill and Mayer. The race resumed with 12 laps left.
Custer powered quickly to the lead on the restart.