Cole Custer 2017 Season Recap

Cole Custer and Stewart-Haas Racing finished fifth in their first season competing in the NASCAR XFINITY Series. Here are the season highlights for the driver of the No. 00 Haas Automation Ford.

Although Custer didn't break through with a pole position, he spent plenty of time at the front of the field. Custer earned a top-five starting spot 10 times throughout the season and led 301 laps, which was the second-most among series regulars.

One of these things just doesn't belong here? Custer took part in the second annual NASCAR XFINITY Philadelphia Takeover with events around the city ahead of the race at Pocono.

A hard and entertaining back-and-forth battle throughout the day at Chicagoland Speedway with Kyle Larson earned Custer a lot of attention and respect.

On the strength of 13 top-10 finishes in the regular season, Custer qualified for the playoffs as the eighth seed.

In saving his best for last, Custer ruled the competition in the season finale in Miami. In addition to leading 182 of the race's 200 laps, Custer's margin of victory was 15.4 seconds as he claimed his first career XFINITY win.

Praise from team co-owner Tony Stewart: 'We knew he was good last year in the truck and I thought he was consistent all year from square one in the first race. ... He's definitely established himself as one of the greatest drivers of the year in the XFINITY Series. His mile-and-a-half record, his average on the mile-and-a-half tracks was No. 1 in the series. He definitely showed strength in tracks that you have to be good at. I'm proud of him. I think he's grown a lot through the year.'