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LONG POND, Pa. — Cole Custer was as calm and collected standing alongside his No. 00 Haas Automation Ford on pit road after Saturday’s XFINITY Series race at Pocono Raceway as he was minutes earlier steering the car to his third consecutive top-10 finish.
The 19-year-old finished seventh and led twice for a total of 14 laps — his first laps out front this season — in an impressive afternoon of learning for the rookie.
“It was a good day,” Custer said, allowing a slight smile. “We had a solid car and made a lot out of it, got to lead some laps. I’m really happy with it today.”
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series veteran Brad Keselowski — who swept the two stage victories — won the race, passing fellow Cup driver Kyle Larson on the final lap of the 100-lap race.
For Custer, coming off finishes of fourth and seventh in the previous two races, Saturday’s race result and time out front seemed to spell a definitive turn in his young career. And he moved up to a career-high ninth in the XFINITY season standings.
It all demonstrates that he’s capable of more than a random good day here or there, and provided a solid, noteworthy body of work to build upon.
“It means a lot,” Custer said of leading laps on Saturday. “It just makes you feel like you deserve to be here a little more. It reaffirms your confidence. Still need to win some races and we will be focusing on that in the future.”
Custer said he was looking forward to the remaining 17 consecutive race weekends of the current 20-race run for the series and felt confident in hoisting his first trophy before fall hits.
There are return dates on the schedule, including Texas Motor Speedway and Dover International Speedway, where he posted fifth- and fourth-place finishes, respectively, earlier this season. He had top-six finishes at Richmond and Charlotte last year.
And there is Iowa, where Custer finished runner-up last year competing in the Camping World Truck Series.
“Iowa is definitely one I’ve had success at,” Custer said. “I’m looking forward to the road courses later in the year too. There’s definitely a good stretch of tracks for sure.
“It’s nice (today) because at the start of the year, we couldn’t even put one race together. It’s definitely been a good stretch for us so far. We just want to keep it going through this 20-week stretch.”