Cole Custer survived an opening-lap tire issue at Texas Motor Speedway and overcame the setback to finish fifth, keeping him in position to challenge for a spot in the NASCAR XFINITY Series playoff quartet with one race left – this Saturday at Phoenix – to set the final foursome.
The biggest takeaway for Custer and his Stewart-Haas Racing Team Saturday night on the Fort Worth high banks, wasn’t so much the good effort as the good mentality the 19-year-old maintained to rebound from adversity with his playoff hopes on the line.
Custer, who has eight top-10 finishes in the last 10 races, is currently in sixth place, 13 points behind Brennan Poole in the fourth-place championship cutoff line. And that’s a far better position than he was in early in Saturday night’s race when the tire issue dropped him more than 30 points back.
“I honestly didn’t know what was happening if something broke or we just had a real loose race car, it was so loose something had to be wrong,’’ said Custer, who drives the No. 00 Haas Automation Ford. “It is what it is, one of those bad luck deals.
“It was really nerve-wracking but I knew it was a long race and we’d be able to get it back because we had a real fast car.’’
Custer could only smile and shake his head recalling the bad luck that hampered him from the drop of the green flag at Texas. After qualifying in the outside pole position, he started inexplicably dropping back from the start of the race, finally pitting for new tires and dashing off to begin his dramatic night of catch-up.
There was no panic for the young driver and he so methodically made his way back forward that he earned playoff points in the second segment before challenging back to his top-five finish.
It was a real test of inner strength and cool.
“It was a hard day from the start but we really couldn’t do anything about that tire,’’ Custer said. “Just proud of how we could rebound like that. I think we had a top-three Ford Mustang just didn’t have the track position at the end. It was a job by everyone this weekend. We had a fast car, just some bad luck.
“That was a really strong run for us with what happened at the start of the race."
In many ways overcoming the setback was as invigorating as the top-five showing – something Custer still felt might have bettered had things gone a little differently.
But it’s on to Phoenix and a season of work for the rookie will come down to the Ticket Galaxy 200 on the Arizona 1-miler. He finished 21st there in the spring after a top-10 start. He finished third in his Camping World Truck Series debut on the track in 2014 and added another top 10 in last year’s Truck Series race.
“It’s really encouraging,’’ Custer said, “Our short-track stuff is getting better. We ran pretty decent there earlier in the year and we’ve gotten better. I’m looking forward to Phoenix. It’s a place we can win a race or at least have a shot at it, and point our way in.
“If someone has a bad run, you can make it up in two stages. No reason we can’t win a race. If we show up with game faces on, no reason why we can’t that race.’’