JR Motorsports driver scored first 21 Means 21 Pole Award there in 2014
LONG POND, Pa. — Rewind the clock back to a year ago: Cole Custer had made two NASCAR Camping World Truck Series starts that resulted in two top-15 finishes.
In his third race, the NASCAR Next product really turned heads at Gateway Motorsports Park, site of Saturday night’s American Ethanol presents the Drivin’ for Linemen 200 brought to you by Ameren (8:30 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, MRN, SiriusXM). Custer scored his first 21 Means 21 Pole Award for the event last year as well as his first top-10 finish (a sixth-place result) in a NASCAR national series event.
“I’m really looking forward to it just because we were so fast there last year,” Custer told NASCAR.com at Pocono Raceway, where he ran in the Pocono ARCA 200 last weekend. “I think we are going to bring a real great truck and we are going to have a lot of speed. We are really looking forward to that one. We have it circled on our calendar.”
The 17-year-old California native ran a nine-race slate last year with Haas Racing Development. That includes a victory at New Hampshire Motor Speedway last fall, where he led 148 of 175 laps en route to becoming the youngest winner in NASCAR national series history.
This season, Custer is helping to build the foundation for the truck operation at JR Motorsports, the Dale Earnhardt Jr.-owned racing team.
“It’s such a great organization,” he said. “It’s one of the top ones in NASCAR. It definitely helps us on the truck side trying to bring fast race cars to the track.”
Gateway will be the third of 10 planned races Custer will run for JRM this season, and part of a stretch that sees him run three races (Dover, Gateway and Iowa) in four weeks. Custer is not of age to run at tracks under 1.25-miles per the NASCAR rulebook.
“You got to be good in (Turn) 1,” Custer said of what he considers a key at Gateway. “You got to get your car turning. You are probably not going to be able to be perfect in both ends because the corners are different. Just being able to turn through Turn 1 and then being a little on the loose side in Turns 3 and 4. It’s different a tricky track.”
To fill the gaps in his schedule, Custer is running a handful of ARCA events as well as some NASCAR K&N Pro Series races this summer. Moving between different series and cars is a bit of an adjustment for the young driver.
“It’s a little bit difficult,” Custer said. “It usually takes you about half a practice session or so to get used to the different cars. Once you get used to it, it’s just like anything else with driving. I think it makes you a better driver just from getting different feels and everything.”
That track time in other series could pay off big for Custer when the Truck Series hits Iowa for his fourth start of the season on June 19 for the American Ethanol 200 (8:30 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, MRN, SiriusXM). Custer finished eighth in the Truck Series race there last year.
“I’m looking forward to Iowa, too, just because I won there in the past (2013) in the K&N Pro Series. I really like that track and I feel like we were pretty good there last year. We weren’t dominant, but I feel like we got a real good package this year and I think we are going to be strong there.”