MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Cole Custer and Chandler Smith are no strangers when it comes to run-ins with each other during this year’s Xfinity Series Playoffs. Saturday evening at Martinsville Speedway saw the duo’s sequel hit the big screen shortly after they exited their cars on pit road.
The two postseason contenders were relatively cordial at Kansas Speedway in September when they exchanged frustrations, but tempers boiled over like a world-famous Martinsville hot dog at the historic facility as Smith threw a punch at Custer.
A restart with 29 to go put Smith on the outside of Row 1 while Custer took the same lane behind the No. 81 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Earlier in the race, Smith moved Custer out of the way as the two battled for second. The No. 00 Stewart-Haas Racing driver returned the favor as he moved Smith in Turn 1.
Ultimately, Aric Almirola went on to grab the checkered flag, and Custer advanced to the Championship 4 by virtue of Smith not winning — eliminating Smith from the playoffs.
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“Obviously he’s not happy but at the end of the day, he’s put us in the wall a few times this year and his mistakes caught up with him,” Custer said. “He used the bumper on me. I used the bumper on him. So what comes around goes around in this deal. I don’t know how we’re not even. Then, he punches me in the face. I can’t even tell if he really punched me in the face, it was so soft.”
The two had a prior meetup in the opening playoff race at Kansas where Custer said Smith put him in the wall off Turn 4 as the two were fighting for the checkered flag. Ironically, that race was also won by Almirola.
Custer admitted that run-in was on his mind if the two found each other Saturday, simply saying: “Yeah, you don’t forget.”
Smith defended how he raced him earlier in the race and said that he had intentions to confront and get physical with Custer once the two were face-to-face.
“I was planning to do more than that,” Smith said after delivering a swipe to Custer’s face. “I was extremely pissed off. I gave him five laps before that caution came out and beat his bumper off and never shipped him or anything like that. Then finally, it’s like, alright, the laps are winding down. I’m in a must-win. The 20’s [Almirola] starting to drive away. He was really good all day. I can’t waste any more time with him. So I finally had a good enough run and pushed him up the racetrack and went on our way.”
Smith added that he was befuddled why Custer took the top from third place when it was time for drivers to pick their lanes ahead of the restart.
“I think he was the first guy all day that chose the outside lane from third place, so that’s very interesting,” Smith said. “And then he didn’t even give me a chance to make the corner when we got to Turn 1. I thought it was a little bit of a chicken-[expletive] move, honestly. Funny enough, the restart right after that, picks right behind me again … how ironic is that?”
POST-RACE: Custer’s side after scuffle | Hear from Chandler after punch thrown
The kerfuffle between the two held massive implications as Custer was the last driver to make the Championship 4 by 28 points over his rival. Custer will attempt to be the first driver to win back-to-back Xfinity titles since Tyler Reddick (2018, 2019) before making the leap back to full-time Cup Series racing under Haas Factory Team in 2025.
As for Smith, the future is less clear as the 22-year-old Georgia native does not have a ride yet for 2025 and laments not securing a berth into the Championship 4 after racking up two wins and 21 top 10s heading into Saturday’s season finale in the Arizona desert (7 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
“I’m very passionate about this. I love this group,” Smith said. “This group deserves to be in Phoenix and deserves to go out and contend for a championship. We’ve had a hell of a year. Not being able to go to the final four is definitely a kick in the gut for us because I feel like this team could go out and win that championship.”
“We’re going to go to Phoenix and we’re going to go try to kick their ass there.”