Cole Custer

Cole Custer
Custer at Daytona International Speedway in 2018
Born	Cole Matthew Custer (1998-01-23) January 23, 1998 (age 23) Ladera Ranch, California
Achievements	Youngest NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race winner (16 in 2014) Youngest NASCAR K&N Pro Series West winner (15 years, 6 months, 10 days) 2nd youngest winner in a NASCAR-sanctioned race
Awards	2020 NASCAR Cup Series Rookie of the Year
NASCAR Cup Series career
67 races run over 3 years
Car no., team	No. 41 (Stewart-Haas Racing)
2020 position	16th
Best finish	16th (2020)
First race	2018 Pennzoil 400 (Las Vegas)
Last race	2021 Federated Auto Parts 400 (Richmond)
First win	2020 Quaker State 400 (Kentucky)
Wins Top tens Poles 1 9 0
NASCAR Xfinity Series career
105 races run over 5 years
Car no., team	No. 17 (SS-Green Light Racing)
2019 position	2nd
Best finish	2nd (2019)
First race	2016 ToyotaCare 250 (Richmond)
Last race	2021 Pit Boss 250 (Austin)
First win	2017 Ford EcoBoost 300 (Homestead)
Last win	2019 Use Your Melon Drive Sober 200 (Dover)
Wins Top tens Poles 9 72 12
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career
42 races run over 3 years
2016 position	10th
Best finish	10th (2016)
First race	2014 Kroger 250 (Martinsville)
Last race	2016 Ford EcoBoost 200 (Homestead)
First win	2014 UNOH 175 (Loudon)
Last win	2015 American Ethanol Presents the Drivin' for Linemen 200 (Gateway)
Wins Top tens Poles 2 24 5
Statistics current as of April 11, 2021.

Cole Matthew Custer (born January 23, 1998) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He currently competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 41 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing.

Racing career[]

Custer began racing quarter midgets at age four. In 2011, Custer won the USAC National Focus Young Guns Championship. The following year, Custer began racing late models, winning ten races and earning Rookie of the Year honors.^[1]

Touring series[]

In 2013 Custer joined the K&N Pro Series East, making his debut at Bristol Motor Speedway^[1] for Ken Schrader Racing. During the season at Iowa Speedway, Custer won the pole position, led every lap, a record for a combination race, and won, becoming the youngest race winner in K&N Pro Series history at age 15, beating Dylan Kwasniewski's record by six months.^{[2][N 1]} Custer would win again at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, also from the pole.^[5][6] He finished eighth in the series standings.^[7] Custer later ran in the K&N Pro Series West's season-ending race. Custer led every single lap, but was turned by Gray Gaulding on the final lap, and finished sixth.^[7]

In the 2014 season, Custer won the Pro Series West opener at Phoenix International Raceway, holding off Greg Pursley and Brennan Newberry on the green–white–checker finish.^[8]

Camping World Truck Series[]

In 2014, Custer joined Haas Racing Development to run nine races in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, making his debut in the Kroger 250 at Martinsville Speedway.^[7] Custer started the race 9th, and finished 12th.^[9] In qualifying for the Drivin' for Linemen 200 at Gateway Motorsports Park, Custer set the track record with a 136.426 miles per hour (219.556 km/h) lap speed, becoming the youngest pole winner in NASCAR history.^[10]

At New Hampshire Motor Speedway on September 20, 2014, Custer won the Camping World Truck Series' UNOH 175 from the pole, becoming the youngest winner in the history of NASCAR's national touring series at 16 years, 7 months and 28 days.^{[11][N 2]}

On January 12, 2015, JR Motorsports announced that Custer would drive a truck for them in ten races in 2015.^[12] On June 13, Custer won the Truck race at Gateway Motorsports Park, holding off the No. 23 truck of Spencer Gallagher, after the dominating trucks of Erik Jones and Matt Crafton were involved in two wrecks at laps 142 and 152.

When he turned 18 years old in 2016, JR Motorsports began fielding the No. 00 truck for Custer full-time, competing for the Rookie of the Year title. At Canadian Tire Motorsport Park during the Chevrolet Silverado 250, John Hunter Nemechek and Custer were battling for the lead when Nemechek bumped Custer before running both Custer and himself off-road, pinning Custer to the wall. Before the winner was declared, Nemechek was tackled by Custer; Nemechek would be named the winner.^[13]

Xfinity Series[]

In 2016, Custer made his Xfinity Series debut for JR Motorsports at Richmond International Raceway, driving the No. 5 Chevrolet Camaro.^[14] He drove the No. 88 for JR Motorsports to a career best fourth-place finish at Charlotte in the Hisense 4K TV 300.

On September 16, 2016, Stewart-Haas Racing announced that Custer would drive the No. 00 Ford Mustang full-time in 2017, with Haas Automation as the primary sponsor.^[15] Custer began the 2017 Xfinity season with a crash at Daytona, finishing 37th. He rebounded the next week at Atlanta, finishing 10th.

After making the Playoffs in his first appearance, Custer began making a surge at the end of the season including leading the most laps at Chicago and Kansas. Custer missed the Final Four by two spots after racing head to head with Daniel Hemric, the next week, Custer put on a clinic by leading the most laps, winning both stages and en route to his first Xfinity win at the Homestead–Miami Speedway in South Florida. The next year at the fall Texas race, Custer got his second career win when he passed Tyler Reddick on the last lap, clinching his spot in the Championship Four.^{[citation needed]}

In the 2019 season, Custer scored wins at Fontana, Richmond, Pocono, Chicago, Kentucky,^[16] and Dover. He finished second at Darlington, but was declared the official race winner after Denny Hamlin was disqualified when his car failed to meet height requirements during post-race inspection.^[17][18] At the end of the Kansas race, Custer got into a fight with Reddick on pit road.^[19] Custer finished the 2019 season second in points after finishing second again to Reddick at Homestead.^[20]

After a two-year absence, Custer returned to the Xfinity Series in May 2021 at Circuit of the Americas, driving the No. 17 for SS-Green Light Racing and Rick Ware Racing as a collab for Stewart-Haas Racing.^[21]

Cup Series[]

In March 2018, Custer joined Rick Ware Racing for his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series debut in the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.^[22] He finished 25th. He returned for the June Pocono race where he would finish 26th. At Richmond Raceway in the fall, he qualified a surprising tenth, though he would go on to finish 26th.^[23]

On November 15, 2019, Stewart-Haas Racing announced that Custer will replace Daniel Suárez in the No. 41 Ford in 2020.^[24] He scored his first Cup top-ten finish at Phoenix, while his maiden top five came at Indianapolis.^[25][26]

A week after Indianapolis, Custer won his first Cup race in the Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway, passing Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr., and Ryan Blaney on the last lap.^[27] He became the first rookie to win in the Cup Series since Chris Buescher in 2016, the first rookie to do so in a non-shortened race since Juan Pablo Montoya in 2007,^[28] and the 33rd driver to win a race in all three NASCAR national touring series.^[27] With the win, Custer made the 2020 Playoffs, but was eliminated following the third round at Bristol.^[29] He finished 16th in the points standings and was awarded the Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors.^[30] Custer remained with Stewart-Haas for the 2021 season. However, his results were inconsistent and he missed the Playoffs after the regular season finale at Daytona as he was 26th in the points standings with just 2 top 10's at Talladega and Dover.

Personal life[]

Born in Ladera Ranch, California, Custer is the son of Joe Custer, who is a president at Stewart-Haas Racing and chief operating officer of Haas F1 Team.^[31] SHR co-owner Gene Haas' company, Haas Automation, sponsors Custer.^[1] He attended Ladera Ranch Middle School and Tesoro High School.

Motorsports career results[]

NASCAR[]

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Cup Series[]

NASCAR Cup Series results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	NCSC	Pts	Ref
2018	Rick Ware Racing	51	Ford	DAY	ATL	LVS 25	PHO	CAL	MAR	TEX	BRI	RCH	TAL	DOV	KAN	CLT	POC 26	MCH	SON	CHI	DAY	KEN	NHA	POC	GLN	MCH	BRI	DAR	IND	LVS	RCH 26	CLT	DOV	TAL	KAN	MAR	TEX	PHO	HOM	63rd	01	[32]
2020	Stewart-Haas Racing	41	Ford	DAY 37	LVS 19	CAL 18	PHO 9	DAR 22	DAR 31	CLT 12	CLT 18	BRI 35	ATL 19	MAR 29	HOM 22	TAL 22	POC 16	POC 17	IND 5	KEN 1	TEX 39	KAN 7	NHA 8	MCH 34	MCH 25	DAY 22	DOV 11	DOV 10	DAY 30	DAR 12	RCH 14	BRI 23	LVS 16	TAL 31	CLT 9	KAN 14	TEX 14	MAR 13	PHO 28	16th	2202	[33]
2021				DAY 11	DAY 13	HOM 23	LVS 25	PHO 31	ATL 18	BRI 24	MAR 18	RCH 23	TAL 10	KAN 24	DAR 36	DOV 10	COA 36	CLT 21	SON 20	NSH 30	POC 38	POC 24	ROA 17	ATL 17	NHA 14	GLN 17	IND 25	MCH 23	DAY 24	DAR 11	RCH 22	BRI	LVS	TAL	CLT	TEX	KAN	MAR	PHO	-*	-*	[34]

Daytona 500[]

Year	Team	Manufacturer	Start	Finish
2020	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	12	37
2021			27	11

Xfinity Series[]

NASCAR Xfinity Series results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	NXSC	Pts	Ref
2016	JR Motorsports	5	Chevy	DAY	ATL	LVS	PHO	CAL	TEX	BRI	RCH 6	TAL	DOV																			CLT DNQ	KAN 35	TEX	PHO	HOM 17	100th	01	[35]
		88												CLT 4	POC	MCH	IOW	DAY	KEN 32	NHA	IND	IOW	GLN	MOH	BRI	ROA	DAR	RCH	CHI	KEN	DOV
2017	Stewart-Haas Racing	00	Ford	DAY 37	ATL 10	LVS 11	PHO 21	CAL 35	TEX 5	BRI 32	RCH 13	TAL 26	CLT 7	DOV 4	POC 7	MCH 10	IOW 24	DAY 22	KEN 11	NHA 9	IND 5	IOW 5	GLN 12	MOH 35	BRI 10	ROA 8	DAR 9	RCH 14	CHI 7	KEN 5	DOV 8	CLT 6	KAN 19	TEX 5	PHO 7	HOM 1*	5th	2288	[36]
2018	Stewart-Haas Racing with Biagi-DenBeste			DAY 14	ATL 39	LVS 9	PHO 8	CAL 6	TEX 4	BRI 8	RCH 6	TAL 9	DOV 13	CLT 2	POC 5	MCH 3	IOW 4	CHI 3	DAY 25	KEN 5	NHA 9	IOW 9*	GLN 6	MOH 7	BRI 4	ROA 4	DAR 2	IND 29	LVS 3	RCH 15	CLT 7	DOV 2	KAN 26	TEX 1	PHO 8	HOM 2*	2nd	4035	[37]
2019				DAY 14	ATL 2	LVS 9	PHO 4	CAL 1	TEX 34	BRI 3	RCH 1*	TAL 32	DOV 4*	CLT 24	POC 1*	MCH 12	IOW 2	CHI 1*	DAY 26	KEN 1*	NHA 2	IOW 29	GLN 7	MOH 8	BRI 22	ROA 10	DAR 1	IND 7	LVS 4	RCH 3	CLT 8	DOV 1	KAN 11*	TEX 8	PHO 2	HOM 2	2nd	4035	[38]
2021	SS-Green Light Racing with Rick Ware Racing	17	Ford	DAY	DAY	HOM	LVS	PHO	ATL	MAR	TAL	DAR	DOV	COA 7	CLT	MOH	TEX	NSH	POC	ROA	ATL	NHA	GLN	IND	MCH	DAY	DAR	RCH	BRI	LVS	TAL	CLT	TEX	KAN	MAR	PHO	-*	01*

Camping World Truck Series[]

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	NCWTC	Pts	Ref
2014	Haas Racing Development	00	Chevy	DAY	MAR 12	KAN	CLT	DOV 14	TEX	GTW 6	KEN	IOW 8	ELD	POC	MCH	BRI 8	MSP 9	CHI	NHA 1*	LVS	TAL	MAR 29	TEX	PHO 3	HOM		25th	302	[39]
2015	JR Motorsports			DAY	ATL	MAR 16	KAN	CLT	DOV 13*	TEX	GTW 1	IOW 9	KEN	ELD 29	POC	MCH	BRI 16*	MSP 10*	CHI	NHA 24	LVS	TAL	MAR 4*	TEX	PHO 26	HOM	22nd	305	[40]
2016				DAY 24	ATL 17	MAR 29	KAN 7	DOV 5	CLT 13	TEX 14	IOW 2	GTW 15	KEN 14	ELD 6	POC 5	BRI 6	MCH 22	MSP 2*	CHI 9	NHA 6	LVS 3	TAL 29	MAR 7	TEX 9	PHO 10	HOM 10	10th	502	[41]

K&N Pro Series East[]

NASCAR K&N Pro Series East results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	NKNPSEC	Pts	Ref
	Ken Schrader Racing	00	Chevy	BRI 24	GRE 19	PEN 22	RCH 3	BGS 10	IOW 4	LGY 23	COL 15	IOW 1*	VIR 19	GRE 16	NHA 1*	DOV 14	RAL 5			8th	452	[42]
2014	Bill McAnally Racing	00	Chevy	NSM	DAY	BRI 14	GRE	RCH 1*	IOW 11	BGS	FFL	LGY	NHA	COL	IOW 3	GLN 16	VIR 18	GRE	DOV 18	20th	234	[43]
2015			Toyota	NSM	GRE	BRI	IOW	BGS	LGY	COL	NHA	IOW	GLN 5	MOT	VIR	RCH	DOV			43rd	40	[44]
2016	HScott Motorsports with Justin Marks	98	Toyota	NSM	MOB	GRE	BRI	VIR	DOM	STA	COL	NHA	IOW	GLN 3	GRE	NJM	DOV			44th	41	[45]

K&N Pro Series West[]

NASCAR K&N Pro Series West results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	NKNPSWC	Pts	Ref
	Ken Schrader Racing	00	Ford	PHO	18	BIR	IOW	L44	SON	CNS	IOW	EVG	SRP	MMP	SMP	AAS	KCR		38th	66	[46]
			Chevy															PHO 6*
2014	Bill McAnally Racing	00	Chevy	PHO 1*	IRW		IOW	KCR								PHO 3			20th	121	[47]
			Toyota						SON 12	SLS	CNS	IOW	EVG	KCR	MMP	AAS
2015				KCR	IRW	TUS	IOW		SON 9	SLS	IOW	EVG	CNS	MER	AAS	PHO			47th	35	[48]
2019	Sunrise Ford Racing	22	Ford	LVS	IRW	TUS	TUS	CNS	SON 4		IOW	EVG	GTW	MER	AAS	KCR	PHO		39th	40	[49]

^* Season still in progress
¹ Ineligible for series points

ARCA Racing Series[]

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

ARCA Racing Series results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	ARSC	Pts	Ref
2015	JR Motorsports	00	Chevy	DAY	MOB		SLM	TAL	TOL	NJE 5	POC 24		CHI	WIN	IOW	IRP	1	BLN	ISF	DQN		KEN	KAN	41st	560	[50]
2016	Ken Schrader Racing	54	Chevy	DAY 10	NSH	SLM	TAL	TOL	NJE	POC		MAD	WIN											69th*	390*	[51]
	Athenian Motorsports	05	Chevy											IOW 7	IRP		BLN	ISF	DSF	SLM	CHI	KEN	KAN
2017	Mason Mitchell Motorsports	78	Ford	DAY	NSH	SLM	TAL	TOL	ELK	POC		MAD	IOW	IRP		WIN	ISF	11	DSF	SLM	CHI	KEN	KAN	88th	175	[52]

References[]

Notes

Citations

External links[]

• Official website
• Cole Custer driver statistics at Racing-Reference