Story By: POCONO RACEWAY – LONG POND, PA – Stewart-Haas Racing’s Cole Custer took a pivotal step toward defending his NASCAR Xfinity Series title by securing his first victory of the season in Saturday’s Explore the Pocono Mountains 225 at Pocono Raceway.
Custer outdueled Justin Allgaier of JR Motorsports following a restart with four laps remaining to end an 18-race winning drought and earn his second win at “The Tricky Triangle” in his last five visits. He also became the seventh full-time driver to win this season and more in command of securing one of the 12 Xfinity Series Playoffs berths. Custer had led the series points the last six races heading into Pocono, but still felt unfulfilled despite his strong campaign.
“I’m the points leader, but I’ve never been this frustrated being the points leader because we haven’t gotten a win yet,” Custer said. “To finally get one and for everything these guys have done to bring such a fast piece here means a lot. I think we can really take it to them in the Playoffs.”
With 35 laps remaining, it was shaping up to be a shootout between Custer, William Byron of Hendrick Motorsports along with defending race winner Austin Hill and Jesse Love, both of Richard Childress Racing.
The foursome all pitted under green-flag conditions in the ensuing laps while Allgaier was among a handful of drivers who gambled to stay out with the possibility of rain approaching. A caution came out with 20 to go and Allgaier already had 25 laps on his tires. It seemed like Allgaier would have no chance of holding off the group, but he did a masterful job in doing so, including another restart with 12 laps remaining.
Custer finally overtook Allgaier on Lap 82 of 90, but the eighth and final caution came out two laps later to give Allgaier another shot at an improbable win. The restart came with four laps remaining and Allgaier got a great jump from the inside position. Custer and Allgaier went side by side before Custer made the pass on the backstraight. Custer would extend the advantage and secure a .670-second win over Allgaier for his fifth consecutive top-seven finish at Pocono dating to his win in 2019.
Byron finished third, polesitter Sheldon Creed of Joe Gibbs Racing finished fourth and Taylor Gray, the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series full-time driver making a start with JGR, took fifth.
“This is such a hard place to win at; I mean you’ve never seen such a turnout at a race track. There are so many fans here who are hardcore about racing; this is a really special place for every team member and every driver to win because it’s so hard,” Custer said. “These guys brought a really fast race car, and we were able to take advantage of it. It was as hectic as you can get (on the restart) and I wish it wasn’t, but we kept our cool and made the most of it.
“We had such a fast car here I think we’ve been building and building all year, so we just got to keep it rolling. This is an unbelievable group that just keeps its cool and even on the tough days we’ve been able to make the most of it and figure out what to do next.”
NEXT UP: Sunday will close out the race weekend with The Great American Getaway 400 presented by VISITPA (2:30 p.m., TV: USA Network, Radio: MRN, SiriusXM).
