Cole Custer is 250/1 to win at Fontana

 

COLE CUSTER Fontana Advance No. 41 Production Alliance Group Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

Event Overview

● Event: Wise Power 400 (Round 2 of 36) ● Time/Date: 3:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, Feb. 27 ● Location: Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California ● Layout: 2-mile oval ● Laps/Miles: 200 laps/400 miles ● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 65 laps / Stage 2: 65 laps / Final Stage: 70 laps ● TV/Radio: FOX / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

● Southern California native Cole Custer returns home to race for the second time in three weeks as the NASCAR Cup Series returns to Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, for the first time in two years for Sunday’s Wise Power 400.   ● Returning to Custer’s No. 41 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) for the first time since that February 2020 race at Fontana is Production Alliance Group (PAG). Tustin, California-based PAG is a premium live-event and creative development company. Its creative works can been seen at concerts, award shows, sporting events, and corporate events. From the lights to the sound and everything in-between, PAG is the creativity and execution behind it all.   ● Custer and his fellow Cup Series competitors first ventured to his Southern California stomping grounds Feb. 5 and 6 for the successful debut of the long-anticipated NextGen car that saw its first racing action in the non-points Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum. The native of Ladera Ranch, California, and 2020 NASCAR Cup Series Rookie of the Year had a solid weekend on the purpose-built, quarter-mile asphalt oval in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, qualifying sixth and then finishing fourth in his heat race to advance to the 150-lap main event. He completed every lap and took the checkered flag seventh.   ● In last Sunday’s season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, Custer overcame early race fueling issues and brought home a 20th-place finish. He started The Great American Race 31st after starting 15th and finishing 16th in his Duel qualifying race Thursday night. He was 29th in Wednesday night’s single-car time trials.   ● Sunday’s race marks Custer’s 77th in the Cup Series and his second at Fontana. The 24-year-old started and finished 18th in his previous start in February 2020.   ● Custer will make his return to the Xfinity Series in Saturday’s Production Alliance Group 300 behind the wheel of the No. 07 for SS GreenLight Racing. He has three NASCAR Xfinity Series starts on the 2-mile oval, the most recent resulting in a victory in March 2019. Custer qualified his No. 00 SHR Ford third and beat runner-up Kyle Busch by 1.927 seconds, leading 29 laps along the way. He started fourth and finished sixth in the previous year’s Xfinity Series race at Fontana.   ● Coincidentally, it was in victory lane after the 2019 Xfinity Series race that the PAG-SHR relationship began. The race was called the Production Alliance Group 300, and that is where Custer first met company president and CEO Dale Sahlin. The two kept in touch, and PAG ultimately decided to increase its presence within NASCAR to SHR’s Xfinity Series program that year, and to SHR’s Cup Series program in 2020.   ● That 2019 Xfinity Series win at Fontana was also Custer’s first with crew chief Mike Shiplett. The two went on to win seven more times that year – one less than Christopher Bell’s series high – en route to second in the driver championship. Shiplett scored a previous Xfinity Series victory at Fontana in 2017 with driver Kyle Larson while the two were with Chip Ganassi Racing.   ● The NextGen is the seventh version of the stock car NASCAR introduced in 1949. Its most notable features include a sequential shifter, 670-horsepower engines, a single center-lock wheel nut akin to Indy cars and sports cars, and car numbers just behind the front wheels, as well as carbon fiber-reinforced plastic body panels, a carbon-fiber floor that covers the entire underneath portion of the car, and a rear-end diffuser – all of which are in place to reduce dirty air. Its rack-and-pinion steering replaces the archaic recirculating ball used in its predecessors, and an independent rear suspension is a drastic upgrade from the full-floating axle first championed by 1950s-era Detroit products. Most importantly, the NextGen car is much more in line with what manufacturers sell and consumers want to see.

Cole Custer, Driver of the No. 41 Production Alliance Group Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

After your solid result at the Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum to open the year, it seemed like Daytona was headed in the right direction. Your thoughts? “Man, that was a heartbreaker. I thought we did a pretty good job at the start of the race. We had good pit stops, we got off pit road well, things were looking pretty decent at the start of the race. We came down pit road the second time and it wouldn’t take fuel, so it’s just one of those things with this NextGen car. It’s one of those things we learned from for the next time how to make it better. You want to go out there and race for the win in the Daytona 500, but we still brought home a clean racecar. Man, I wish we could’ve raced for the win, but we’ll be all the more hungry when we get back to my home track at Fontana.”   How do you like racing on your home racetrack? “I love it. It’s a great racetrack because you’re moving around so much, slipping and sliding, and there are so many different racing lines you can use depending on what your car wants. We’ve won there in the Xfinity Series and that’s when we first met our sponsors from PAG, so that was all very cool. I’d love to bring them another win there this weekend.”   Now that you have a couple of races under your belt with the NextGen car, what kind of expectations have been set for you and the team? “I think the biggest thing is getting back to what we do best at SHR, and that’s just competing up front and going for wins. Last year, for every single one of us, it was not the year that we wanted. We wanted to be able to run up front more and have more competitive races where we got to compete for wins. This year is the perfect year to rebound from that and show people what we can do. We showed at Daytona that we’re headed in the right direction with a couple of top-five finishes. And who knows how things might have turned out differently if we wouldn’t have had the fueling issue, and if Kevin (Harvick) didn’t get caught up in that late wreck. We want to get back to multi-win seasons and get to victory lane a lot more. We put a lot of work into this NextGen car, the guys have been working extremely hard trying to figure out every single little piece, and I think we’ve hit the ground running in trying to get back to victory lane as soon as we can.”   What are the most significant differences you’ve noticed so far about this new car, as far as sitting inside the car and some of the nuances as far as its driveability? “One of the biggest things is probably the mirrors, especially at a track like Daytona. You can’t see quite as much in the rearview mirror, and you also have the digital mirror, so it’s totally different and is taking some getting used to, trying to be sure of how far away somebody is behind you. You know, we’re working in inches, so if you get that wrong, bad things can happen. As for the way it drives, I think the biggest thing is the tires. The tires are wider. And the brakes are better. You don’t have as much wheel hop, I feel like, with the independent rear suspension. So it’s a lot of little quirks here and there that we kind of have to relearn and then also figure out how to push it to its limits.”

Cole Custer is 300/1 to win 2021 Southern 500 at Darlington

 

COLE CUSTER Darlington Advance No. 41 HaasTooling.com Demo Day Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

Event Overview

● Event: Cook Out Southern 500 (Round 27 of 36) ● Time/Date: 6 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Sept. 5 ● Location: Darlington (S.C.) Raceway ● Layout: 1.366-mile oval ● Laps/Miles: 367 laps/500 miles ● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 115 laps / Stage 2: 115 laps / Final Stage: 137 laps ● TV/Radio: NBCSN / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

● Cole Custer and the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Demo Day Ford Mustang team for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) are bearing down for the final 10 races of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season after their strong bid for a top-five finish last Saturday night at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway was foiled when Custer was caught in a multicar accident on the next-to-last restart of the race. Custer and the team left Daytona more determined than ever to lock down their first victory of the season during the home stretch, which begins with Sunday night’s Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway.   ● Appearing on Custer’s SHR Mustang for the first of two consecutive races Sunday night will be Haas Automation’s Demo Day in leadup to this year’s annual event held at the network of nine Haas Factory Outlet (HFO) locations throughout the country. Demo Day provides HFOs an opportunity to feature the latest CNC machines, innovations and technology from Haas Automation. HFOs will showcase machine cutting demonstrations, as well as educational seminars to explain how the latest Haas machines and options can make companies more efficient and profitable. Current Haas users, potential customers and anyone in the manufacturing industry are also invited to attend. To find the nearest HFO, and for more information, click here.   ● Saturday’s 500-mile race will be Custer’s 66th Cup Series start and his and his fifth on the 1.366-mile, egg-shaped oval. The reigning Cup Series Rookie of the Year’s 12th-place finish in the Southern 500 last September was the best of his three Darlington outings in 2020. In this year’s Southern 500 at Darlington in May, an accident during Stage 2 of the race ended his day prematurely.   ● The native of Ladera Ranch, California, was credited with the victory in his most recent NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Darlington in 2019 after finishing second the previous year and ninth in 2017, all behind the wheel of the No. 00 SHR Ford. In the 2019 race, he crossed the finish line .602 of a second behind the apparent race-winner Denny Hamlin. But Hamlin’s racecar was disqualified after a ride-height violation was discovered in postrace inspection, giving Custer his eighth of nine career Xfinity series victories. In the September 2018 Xfinity Series race at Darlington, Custer was runner-up to Brad Keselowski by .738 of a second.   ● After last weekend’s 24th-place finish on the 2.5-mile Daytona oval, Custer arrives at Daytona 28th in the driver standings.   ● Returning to Custer’s No. 41 Ford Mustang is team co-owner Gene Haas’ newest holding, Haas Tooling, which was launched as a way for CNC machinists to purchase high-quality cutting tools at great prices. Haas cutting tools are sold exclusively online at HaasTooling.com and shipped directly to end users. HaasTooling.com products became available nationally last July, and the cutting tools available for purchase at HaasTooling.com have proven to be even more important during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as CNC machines have become vital to producing personal protective equipment. Haas Automation, founded by Haas in 1983, is America’s leading builder of CNC machine tools. The company manufactures a complete line of vertical and horizontal machining centers, turning centers and rotary tables and indexers. All Haas products are constructed in the company’s 1.1-million-square-foot manufacturing facility in Oxnard, California, and distributed through a worldwide network of Haas Factory Outlets.   ● September is Hunger Action Month, and SHR, its partner Wow Wow Classic Waffles, and Feeding America®, the largest hunger relief organization in the United States with a network of 200 food banks and 60,000 food pantries and meal programs, are asking fans to think about their answer to a simple question: How will you choose to end hunger? Hunger Action Month is an annual campaign dedicated to driving awareness and inspiring action to help end hunger in America, both on a national scale and on the ground in local communities. It’s a time when the Feeding America network of food banks and the public come together to raise awareness and inspire action to help people facing impossible choices due to hunger. Fans are encouraged to visit the Hunger Action Month page via the Feeding America website to learn how they can take action through sharing, volunteering, pledging to advocate, fundraising and making a donation. Each $1 donated helps provide at least 10 meals secured by Feeding America on behalf of local member food banks. Custer and the No. 41 SHR Ford team have accumulated nearly 100 volunteer hours to date, working with Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina in packing bags and helping with drop-off events at Charlotte-area schools.   ● Fans can do their part by texting HUNGER to 50555 to make a $5 donation to Feeding America, by visiting the Feeding America donation page on Facebook, or the donation page via the Feeding America website. Each $1 donated helps provide at least 10 meals secured by Feeding America® on behalf of local member food banks.

Cole Custer, Driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Demo Day Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

Is there a race you’re looking forward to more than any of the others over these last 10 events of the season? “I would say Darlington is one I’m looking forward to. It’s one of those races that every driver looks forward to because of the challenge behind it and how much you can do as a driver. There are so many different lanes you can work and you’re running right up against the wall. It’s just a driver’s racetrack and I feel there’s not one guy who doesn’t feel excited when they hear Darlington is coming up.”   How do you feel the team has progressed to this point, where you’re about to enter the home stretch of the season? “There have been just so many things to work through this year that were a little unexpected, there were a lot of curveballs thrown against us. Everybody’s worked so hard to figure out what direction we need to go in. We’ve got more of an idea on what direction to go, it’s just a matter of fine-tuning that. I think we’re headed in the right direction, it’s just a matter of working the final details.”   What did it mean for you to be in the playoffs last year as a rookie? “I think it meant the world. It was a great experience to see how everybody raced each other under tight circumstances. It was definitely a great experience and hopefully we can be right back in the thick of things next year. In the meantime, we’ll just work as hard as we can to build all the momentum we can through these final 10 races this year, maybe even pick up a win or two.”   Do you feel the playoffs are a good way to determine a champion? “It’s how we play the game. I don’t know how else to say it. I think it generates a lot of excitement. I think it’s a lot like other sports where we have playoffs and I think it’s always been good. In all sports, you have times where the best team doesn’t win the whole thing, doesn’t win the championship. That happens in our sport, too. It’s just part of it. Our sport is a little bit unique because we do race at different tracks and things can happen. Some teams are better at certain tracks than others, but at the same time it’s the game you play. We have a playoff system and I think it’s been great for the sport in having a lot of excitement and you just have to make it happen those last 10 races.”

Cole Custer is 125/1 to win at Road America

 

COLE CUSTER Road America Advance No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

Event Overview

● Event: Jockey Made in America 250 (Round 20 of 36) ● Time/Date: 2:30 p.m. EDT on Sunday, July 4 ● Location: Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin ● Layout: 4.048-mile, 14-turn road course ● Race 1 Laps/Miles: (62 laps/250 miles) ● Race 1 Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 14 laps / Stage 2: 15 laps / Final Stage: 33 laps ● TV/Radio: NBC / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

● NASCAR’s top national touring series returns to Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, for the first time in 65 years and for only the second time ever when Cole Custer and the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang team for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) join their fellow Cup Series competitors for Sunday’s Jockey made in America 250. Tim Flock drove his No. 15 Mercury to a 14-second victory over Billy Myers, with Fireball Roberts finishing a close third, when the NASCAR Grand National Series visited the 4.048-mile, 14-turn circuit located in the heart of America’s Dairyland in August 1956.   ● While it’s his and the rest of the field’s first Cup Series appearance at Road America, Custer has three NASCAR Xfinity Series races and one ARCA Menards Series outing there, all resulting in top-11 finishes. The 23-year-old from Ladera Ranch, California, logged finishes of eighth, fourth and 10th, respectively, driving the No. 00 SHR Ford from 2017 through 2019, and qualified on the front row alongside polesitter Matt Tifft in the 2018 event. In Custer’s lone ARCA start at Road America, in August 2017, he started fifth and finished 11th in the No. 78 Ford for team owner Mason Mitchell.   ● Custer made three Xfinity Series starts in the No. 00 SHR Ford from 2017 through 2019, never starting worse than third, never finishing worse than seventh, and leading a total of 95 laps in the three events. He qualified third and finished seventh in 2017, then qualified on the pole in both the 2018 and 2019 races, finishing fifth in 2018 and scoring the victory by .228 of a second over Tyler Reddick in 2019 after leading a race-high 58 laps.   ● Sunday’s 250-mile race marks Custer’s 59th career Cup Series start and his sixth points-paying Cup Series race on a road course. In his five previous points-paying Cup Series starts on road courses, Custer’s best was an impressive ninth-place run on the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway Roval last October. In February, the reigning Cup Series Rookie of the Year rallied for a 13th-place finish on the Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway road course after dropping back as far as 24th while avoiding a multicar accident in the closing laps. In his most recent road-course outing, Custer finished 20th at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway four weekends ago. In this year’s non-points Busch Clash on the Daytona road course, Custer drove deep into the top-10 on multiple occasions, but he fell three laps off the pace late in the race when he could not refire his Mustang after serving a self-imposed stop-and-go penalty for missing the backstraight chicane. He finished 20th.   ● In his 11 road-course outings in the NASCAR Xfinity Series from 2017 through 2019, Custer finished outside the top-10 just once with his fourth-place run at Road America in 2018 best of them all.   ● Custer also has top-10s in all three of his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series outings on road courses, all three occurring at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Bowmanville, Ontario. His best was his most recent, a second-place run from the pole with a race-high 39 laps led in the No. 00 JR Motorsports entry in 2016. He also made three starts apiece on the road courses at Sonoma and Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International in NASCAR K&N Pro Series competition, with best finishes of third in the 2016 East Series race at Watkins Glen after having qualified on the pole there the previous year, and fourth in the 2019 West Series race at Sonoma.   ● Sunday’s race is the fourth of a ground-breaking seven NASCAR Cup Series races to be held on road courses in 2021. From 1988 to 2017, there were only two road courses on the schedule – Sonoma and Watkins Glen. The Charlotte Roval was added in 2018, giving the series three road-course venues. The initial 2021 schedule doubled that tally, with Circuit of the Americas in Austin Texas, Road America, and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course all being added. And when COVID-19 restrictions forced the cancellation of the series’ stop this year at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, the Daytona road course was put in its place.   ● For the second time in three weeks, and the fifth time this year, Sunday’s race will be preceded by practice and qualifying. Cup Series competitors will have a 50-minute practice session Saturday afternoon, as well as qualifying on Sunday morning.   ● After last weekend’s doubleheader at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway, Custer arrives at Road America is 28th in the Cup Series standings, 150 points behind the 16th and final playoff position.   ● Returning to Custer’s No. 41 Ford Mustang for SHR is team co-owner Gene Haas’ newest holding, Haas Tooling, which was launched as a way for CNC machinists to purchase high-quality cutting tools at great prices. Haas cutting tools are sold exclusively online at HaasTooling.com and shipped directly to end users. HaasTooling.com products became available nationally last July, and the cutting tools available for purchase at HaasTooling.com have proven to be even more important during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as CNC machines have become vital to producing personal protective equipment. Haas Automation, founded by Haas in 1983, is America’s leading builder of CNC machine tools. The company manufactures a complete line of vertical and horizontal machining centers, turning centers and rotary tables and indexers. All Haas products are constructed in the company’s 1.1-million-square-foot manufacturing facility in Oxnard, California, and distributed through a worldwide network of Haas Factory Outlets.   ● As announced during the annual Coca-Cola 600 Memorial Day weekend, Custer and the team encourage fans to join Wow Wow Classic Waffles in support of Feeding America®, the largest hunger relief organization in the United States with a network of 200 food banks and 60,000 food pantries and meal programs. Fans are encouraged to text HUNGER to 50555 to make a $5 donation to Feeding America®, by visiting the Feeding America® donation page on Facebook, or the donation page via the Feeding America® website. Each $1 donated helps provide at least 10 meals secured by Feeding America® on behalf of local member food banks.

Cole Custer, Driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

You’re returning to Road America, where you’ve enjoyed three solid runs in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, but this time in a Cup Series car. Your thoughts? “I’m really excited for Road America. It’s a really prestigious road course in our country and I think it’s a place where, if you have any bad tendencies, it’s going to show up at Road America. You have so many different corners, there are so many hard corners, it just brings out some of the best road-course racing.”   A good number of other Cup Series drivers have experience Road America in the Xfinity and Camping World Truck Series. Will that experience have any benefit this weekend? “Obviously, the Cup Series cars are vastly different. I think Road America is a track that’s really tough – it’s a really tough road course. Like I said, if you have any bad tendencies, they’re going to show up there. So it’s going to be a hard racetrack to figure out for a lot of guys who haven’t been there before, I think. I’m happy that I’ve raced there before, which makes it a good thing for me. It’s going to be an exciting race.”   Like we saw at Pocono last weekend, Road America is a place where fans have enjoyed the camping experience at the racetrack for generations. What kind of atmosphere are you expecting for Sunday’s race? “Those cheese lovers, they might be out of control (laughs). It’s awesome to go up there. Just hardcore race fans, people who live and die by that racetrack, and I think it’s really cool to see people who are that passionate about the sport.”   This weekend marks the second of three new road-course races on the Cup Series schedule. With that, you once again will have the ability to practice and qualify. How does that change your approach to the weekend? “The biggest thing with the new schedule in NASCAR, with the addition of COTA (Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas) and Road America and the Indy road course, is being able to get laps on those tracks. Being able to maximize your weekend as much as you can, getting laps at those tracks is the biggest thing you can do. Fortunately, I’ve turned a lot of laps at Road America in the Xfinity Series and, as much as I like that track and racing on road courses in general, it’s been frustrating to me that I don’t have a win on a road course in NASCAR. I feel like I’ve run solid and have had a lot of chances to win on road courses, but it just hasn’t ever worked out. I love going to road courses. I think it’s a lot of fun and it brings the driver more into play. Our goal, as always, will be to get a top-10 and try to run all the laps and figure out the best way around the track in a Cup car. Hopefully, we’ll be running in the top-10 and can find ourselves at the end with a shot at the win.”   At just over 4 miles, a lap around the 14-turn Road America layout is now the longest on the Cup Series schedule, each lap somewhat of a “road trip” in itself. If you could go on a road trip with anyone, who would that be, and why? “That’s a good question. I think a lot of people are probably going say Dale Earnhardt. He’s really iconic in our sport, somebody who I think would be fun to talk to about what it was like back when he first got going and how much the sport’s changed, and what he thinks about it now. I think it would be a really interesting conversation.”

Cole Custer is 100/1 to win Texas Grand Prix

 

COLE CUSTER Circuit of the Americas Advance No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

Event Overview

● Event: EchoPark Texas Grand Prix (Round 14 of 36) ● Time/Date: 2:30 p.m. EDT on Sunday, May 23 ● Location: Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas ● Layout: 20-turn, 3.426-mile road course ● Laps/Miles: 68 laps/231 miles ● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 15 laps / Stage 2: 17 laps / Final Stage: 36 laps ● TV/Radio: FS1 / PRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

● Coming off their second top-10 finish of the season, Cole Custer and the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang team for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) head to one of the more highly anticipated stops on the NASCAR Cup Series tour for Sunday’s EchoPark Texas Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. The 20-turn, 3.426-mile road course that has been home to Formula One’s United States Grand Prix since 2012 is hosting all three NASCAR national touring series for the first time this weekend.   ● Sunday’s 68-lap, 231-mile race marks Custer’s 53rd career Cup Series start and his fourth on a road course. He had an impressive ninth-place run on the Roval circuit at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway last October is best among his three previous points-paying road-course starts in the Cup Series. In February, the reigning Cup Series Rookie of the Year rallied for a 13th-place finish on the Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway road course after dropping back as far as 24th while avoiding a multicar accident in the closing laps. In this year’s non-points Busch Clash, Custer drove deep into the top-10 on multiple occasions, but he fell three laps off the pace late when he could not refire his Mustang after serving a self-imposed stop-and-go penalty for missing the backstraight chicane. He finished 20th.   ● In his 11 road-course outings in the NASCAR Xfinity Series from 2017 through 2019, Custer finished outside the top-10 just once with a best result of fourth in the 2018 race at Road America.   ● Custer also has top-10s in all three of his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series outings on road courses, all three occurring at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Bowmanville, Ontario. His best was his most recent, a second-place run from the pole with a race-high 39 laps led in the No. 00 JR Motorsports entry in 2016. He also made three starts apiece on the road courses at Sonoma and Watkins Glen in NASCAR K&N Pro Series competition, with best finishes of third in the 2016 East Series race at Watkins Glen after having qualified on the pole there the previous year, and fourth in the 2019 West Series race at Sonoma.   ● In an effort to maximize track time during the inaugural NASCAR weekend at Circuit of the Americas, Custer will pilot the No. 17 Ford Mustang for SS Green Light Racing/Rick Ware Racing in Saturday’s Xfinity Series race. It will be the native of Ladera Ranch, California’s first Xfinity Series appearance since the 2019 season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where he piloted the No. 00 SHR Ford to a runner-up finish for the second consecutive race.   ● After last Sunday’s 10th-place finish at Dover (Del.) International Speedway, Custer arrives at Circuit of the Americas 25th in the Cup Series standings, 355 points behind leader Denny Hamlin, and 71 points behind the 16th and final playoff position.   ● Sunday’s race is the second of a ground-breaking seven NASCAR Cup Series races to be held on road courses in 2021. From 1988 to 2017, there were only two road courses on the schedule – Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway and Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International. The Charlotte Roval was added in 2018, giving the series three road-course venues. The initial 2021 schedule doubled that tally, with Circuit of the Americas, Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course all being added. And when COVID-19 restrictions forced the cancellation of the series’ stop this year at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, the Daytona road course was put in its place.   ● Returning to Custer’s No. 41 Ford Mustang for SHR is team co-owner Gene Haas’ newest holding, Haas Tooling, which was launched as a way for CNC machinists to purchase high-quality cutting tools at great prices. Haas cutting tools are sold exclusively online at HaasTooling.com and shipped directly to end users. HaasTooling.com products became available nationally last July, and the cutting tools available for purchase at HaasTooling.com have proven to be even more important during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as CNC machines have become vital to producing personal protective equipment. Haas Automation, founded by Haas in 1983, is America’s leading builder of CNC machine tools. The company manufactures a complete line of vertical and horizontal machining centers, turning centers and rotary tables and indexers. All Haas products are constructed in the company’s 1.1-million-square-foot manufacturing facility in Oxnard, California, and distributed through a worldwide network of Haas Factory Outlets.   ● SHR revealed last month that Code 3 Associates returns to the No. 41 Ford Mustang for the July 11 race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Code 3 Associates has been a hero to animals for more than 30 years. If disaster strikes, Code 3 will deploy its Animal Rescue Team to help in emergencies like hurricanes, fires and floods. Fans have the opportunity to have their name featured on the No. 41 SHR Ford and help Code 3 continue its rescue efforts by simply visiting Code3.cc/Cole41 and making a $41 donation.

Cole Custer, Driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

You and your Cup Series counterparts will be making history this weekend by racing for the first time at the Circuit of the Americas. What’s the significance of this weekend’s race in your mind? “It’s going be a cool race to be a part of, the first race at that racetrack. It’s pretty prestigious. It’s a place F1 cars have raced and there are a lot of unknowns, obviously, because we haven’t raced there. But it’s going to be pretty exciting to feel that place out.”   You had a chance to take laps around the circuit earlier this year in a Trans-Am car. What do you think of the layout? “It’s a very technical track and a little bit awkward. Not a ton of flow because there are long straightaways and how tight the corners are and every single corner is different. It’s a very hard track – I can see some people doing really well in parts of it and struggling in others. There will be a lot of passing zones, I think, and it’s going to be racey as hell.”   With more than double the normal number of road-course races on the schedule this year, does that change the way you condition, and your mental preparation? “It’s not too much different physically, honestly. You might work out the right side of your neck a little bit more because we rarely use that part, but you don’t change too much, I would say. Mentally, the biggest thing is being prepared. Now, with no practice, you really have to have a good game plan and have an idea of what you’re unloading with and what you’re expecting to do the first few laps. From there, you’re thrown into a lot of different situations so you have to know how to adapt. Being able to know what the best move is in those situations means a lot. Doing your homework and making sure you’re watching film and looking back on your notes from the past will help you in those situations.”   Here’s a random thought … you were the last driver to win a Cup race at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta. This weekend you could be the first to win at Circuit of the Americas. Your thoughts on that? “That’s a very cool thought. To be honest, I don’t care where we are, I want to win every weekend. That’s our job. COTA is a place where the F1 cars race. It’s probably one of the nicest facilities in the country, so it’s an honor to race there. It’s going to be cool to try and figure out because it probably wasn’t designed for our cars, so it’s a racetrack that we’re going to have to try and adapt to.”   What is it like to race on a road course in a stock car? “It’s like driving a bulldozer around. A lot of road courses are meant for small cars that can move around that are really agile, where a stock car is really bulky and we’re beating and banging around. It makes for some really exciting racing.”

Cole Custer is 300/1 to win 2021 Drydene 400 at Dover

 

COLE CUSTER Dover Advance No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

Event Overview

● Event: Dover 400 (Round 12 of 36) ● Time/Date: 2 p.m. EDT on Sunday, May 16 ● Location: Dover (Del.) International Speedway ● Layout: 1-mile oval ● Laps/Miles: 400 laps/400 miles ● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 120 laps / Stage 2: 120 laps / Final Stage: 160 laps ● TV/Radio: FS1 / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

● Cole Custer and the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang team for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) head to one of the 23-year-old NASCAR Cup Series driver’s favorite racetracks for Sunday’s Dover 400. The reigning Cup Series Rookie of the Year posted finishes of 11th and 10th, respectively, when the series visited the concrete mile oval for a Saturday-Sunday doubleheader last August.   ● Sunday’s 400-mile race marks Custer’s 52nd career Cup Series start and his third at Dover.   ● Custer’s six outings at Dover in the NASCAR Xfinity Series collectively rank among his best in 104 career starts in that series from 2017 through 2019. His most recent, in October 2019, was his best. He qualified third in the No. 00 SHR Ford and led 31 laps en route to a victory by a one-second margin over runner-up Justin Allgaier. It was his fourth of four top-fives and fifth of five top-10s in his six Xfinity Series starts at Dover. In the May 2019 race, he qualified on the pole and led a race-high 155 of 200 laps before finishing fourth. That came on the heels of his runner-up finish in the October 2018 race, when he led 38 laps and crossed the finish line .525 of a second behind Christopher Bell. Custer finished fourth in his Dover Xfinity Series debut in May 2017 and eighth in the October 2017 race.   ● In NASCAR Camping World Truck Series competition, the native of Ladera Ranch, California, has a best finish of fifth in the most recent of his three Dover outings, when he drove the No. 00 entry for JR Motorsports in the May 2016 race. He led a race-high 67 of 200 laps en route to a 13th-place finish in the May 2015 Truck Series race for JR Motorsports.   ● After last Sunday’s 36th-place finish at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway, Custer arrives at Darlington 26th in the Cup Series standings, 337 points behind leader Denny Hamlin, and 76 points behind the 16th and final playoff position.   ● Returning to Custer’s No. 41 Ford Mustang for SHR is team co-owner Gene Haas’ newest holding, Haas Tooling, which was launched as a way for CNC machinists to purchase high-quality cutting tools at great prices. Haas cutting tools are sold exclusively online at HaasTooling.com and shipped directly to end users. HaasTooling.com products became available nationally last July, and the cutting tools available for purchase at HaasTooling.com have proven to be even more important during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as CNC machines have become vital to producing personal protective equipment. Haas Automation, founded by Haas in 1983, is America’s leading builder of CNC machine tools. The company manufactures a complete line of vertical and horizontal machining centers, turning centers and rotary tables and indexers. All Haas products are constructed in the company’s 1.1-million-square-foot manufacturing facility in Oxnard, California, and distributed through a worldwide network of Haas Factory Outlets.   ● SHR revealed last month that Code 3 Associates returns to the No. 41 Ford Mustang for the July 11 race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Code 3 Associates has been a hero to animals for more than 30 years. If disaster strikes, Code 3 will deploy its Animal Rescue Team to help in emergencies like hurricanes, fires and floods. Fans have the opportunity to have their name featured on the No. 41 SHR Ford and help Code 3 continue its rescue efforts by simply visiting Code3.cc/Cole41 and making a $41 donation.

Cole Custer, Driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

You’ve had a good bit of experience on the Monster Mile at Dover. What would be your favorite memory? “For me, it was winning there in the Xfinity Series. It was a track I always wanted to win at and it took me some time. I was close a lot of times, so to finally win there meant a ton. It’s the coolest trophy you can win with the Monster, and it’s one every driver wants to check off their list.”   Dover is a track where a small, one-car incident can turn into a multi-car mess and usually it’s the guys in the back that get the short end of the stick. How do you avoid that when you have to start further back in the field? “At Dover it’s especially difficult when you have to start deep in the field. It’s really hard to pass, at times, and you can get caught up in wrecks easily.  A lot of times you’ll see guys wreck and come down the track collecting a lot of others. We won’t have that luxury this weekend to start up front and out of the way, so we’ll hope to be able to work our way forward from the very beginning.”   A lot of drivers either love or hate Dover. What are your feelings toward the racetrack? “I love Dover. You’ve got to be really aggressive and just go for it, or it’ll eat you up. But you also have to be very strategic with how you work the gas and make your way through the corners. There’s a reason it’s called the Monster Mile. If you aren’t ready for it, and don’t pay attention to those details, it can be a handful.

Cole Custer is 200/1 to win at Kansas

 

COLE CUSTER Kansas Advance No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

Event Overview

● Event: Buschy McBusch Race 400 (Round 10 of 36) ● Time/Date: 3 p.m. EDT on Sunday May 2 ● Location: Kansas Speedway in Kansas City ● Layout: 1.5-mile oval ● Laps/Miles: 267 laps/400 miles ● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 80 laps / Stage 2: 80 laps / Final Stage: 107 laps ● TV/Radio: FS1 / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

● Fresh off their first top-10 of the season, Cole Custer and his No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang team for Stewart Haas Racing (SHR) head to the 1.5-mile oval at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City for Sunday’s Buschy McBusch Race 400. It will be the milestone 50th career NASCAR Cup Series start for the series’ reigning Rookie of the Year.   ● The 23-year-old from Ladera Ranch, California, had solid runs in both Kansas outings last year, finishing seventh in July and 14th in October. The seventh-place finish in July was his fourth Cup Series top-10 in 19 starts. His bid for a second-consecutive Kansas top-10 in October was thwarted by a late-race speeding penalty on pit road.   ● Last weekend’s 10th-place finish at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway was Custer’s eighth Cup Series top-10.   ● Custer has four Kansas appearances in NASCAR Xfinity Series competition, the most recent three in the No. 00 SHR Ford and the first in the No. 5 entry for JR Motorsports, with a best finish of 11th in the 2019 event after leading a race-high 85 laps.   ● In his lone NASCAR Camping World Truck Series outing at Kansas, Custer qualified fourth and finished seventh in the No. 00 JR Motorsports entry.   ● After last Sunday’s 10th-place finish at Talladega, Custer arrives at Kansas 23rd in the Cup Series standings, 268 points behind leader Denny Hamlin, and 51 points behind the 16th and final playoff position.   ● Returning to Custer’s No. 41 Ford Mustang for SHR is team co-owner Gene Haas’ newest holding, Haas Tooling, which was launched as a way for CNC machinists to purchase high-quality cutting tools at great prices. Haas cutting tools are sold exclusively online at HaasTooling.com and shipped directly to end users. HaasTooling.com products became available nationally last July, and the cutting tools available for purchase at HaasTooling.com have proven to be even more important during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as CNC machines have become vital to producing personal protective equipment. Haas Automation, founded by Haas in 1983, is America’s leading builder of CNC machine tools. The company manufactures a complete line of vertical and horizontal machining centers, turning centers and rotary tables and indexers. All Haas products are constructed in the company’s 1.1-million-square-foot manufacturing facility in Oxnard, California, and distributed through a worldwide network of Haas Factory Outlets.   ● SHR revealed last week that Code 3 Associates returns to the No. 41 Ford Mustang for the July 11 race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Code 3 Associates has been a hero to animals for more than 30 years. If disaster strikes, Code 3 will deploy its Animal Rescue Team to help in emergencies like hurricanes, fires and floods. Fans have the opportunity to have their name featured on the No. 41 SHR Ford and help Code 3 continue its rescue efforts by simply visiting Code3.cc/Cole41 and making a $41 donation.

Cole Custer, Driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

You’re coming off your first top-10 of the season at Talladega and head to the mile-and-a-half oval at Kansas. What’s on your mind? “It was good to have a solid day at Talladega after all that can potentially happen to you on that track. We left there with the mindset of stringing together a bunch of top-10s and building some consistency. Kansas is a tough racetrack. You have to move around and work the different lanes. You have to have the speed, as well, obviously. Track position is going to be huge and how you work the strategy is important. It’s a track where you have to put everything together. You have to make sure you can work the lanes good, and work them from the bottom to the top of the track.”   You had a solid seventh-place finish in last year’s first visit to Kansas and almost scored another top-10 your second time there last fall. How was that experience for you? “The guys fought all race long both times and we definitely were able to make something of it in the first race, even though it wasn’t the prettiest day. We were in a good position in the fall race. Right there at the end was the best I had been in the top groove all race long. But the speeding penalty set us back and we still ended up with 14th place, which was disappointing when we considered what might have been.”   This will be your third race of the season on a mile-and-a-half tri-oval. What can you carry over from the Las Vegas and Atlanta races from earlier this year? “Every single track is different. You can’t bring the same thing to them. We struggled a little bit at both of those races earlier this year, but I think we have a really good idea on what we need to bring to these mile-and-a-half tracks. We’ve been working hard to put in all the preparation we can, but it all still comes down to making our best educated guess because we don’t have practice or anything to work our cars in before the race. You just have to hope you hit it right.”   You’re making your 50th Cup Series start Sunday. How would you gauge your progress, and your working relationship with your crew chief Mike Shiplett and your engineer Davin Restivo? “Fifty races, that’s a cool number. But it’s just a fraction of what most of the guys out there have under their belts. It’s been cool to work with Mike and Davin because I’ve been working with them since the Xfinity Series. We’re making good progress, I think, and with the rules and the different tires and new tracks and everything, you’re always learning in the Cup Series no matter who you are. It’s nice to have our communication down and know what each other is looking for in our cars. It’s been good, it’s just a matter of perfecting these cars and getting better each time we are out there.”