After a wild side-by-side battle with Justin Allgaier that lasted nearly a lap with four of 90 laps remaining, Custer pulled ahead and held on to take the win in Saturday’s race at Pocono Raceway by 0.670 seconds.
While Custer was the series points leader coming into the race, the win is the first of the season for the driver of the No. 00 Stewart-Haas Ford and locks him into the playoff field. The victory is also the first in the series this season for Ford Performance.
Watch: Cole Custer: ‘I think we can really carry this’ after earning Pocono win
Custer led early in the race but found himself trailing Allgaier when Allgaier decided to stretch his fuel and skip a final pit stop.
On newer tires, Custer finally passed Allgaier with nine laps to go but Allgaier was still good enough to trade the lead with him on the final restart.
“Man, you just try to manage it the best you can but it’s just the luck of the draw on who gets the best push (on the restart). That was all Doug Yates horsepower right there. We definitely did some passing on the straightaways today,” said Custer, who owns 14 career wins.
“These guys have worked so hard all year but just haven’t had that final result. To finally get it is so awesome. I’ve never been so frustrated being the points leader – it’s the weirdest feeling in the world. We’ve been so good pretty much all year.”
William Byron overcame a flat tire earlier in the race to finish third, Sheldon Creed was fourth and Taylor Gray rounded out the top five.
Completing the top 10 were A.J. Allmendinger, Austin Hill, Parker Kligerman, Sammy Smith and Sam Mayer.
Stage 1
Allgaier easily held off Custer by 4.100 seconds to take the Stage 1 win. Chandler Smith was third, Byron fourth and Allmendinger ended up fifth.
Stage 2
Custer led every green-flag lap on his way to taking the Stage 2 win over Chandler Smith by 3.958 seconds. Hill was third, Riley Herbst fourth and Ryan Sieg rounded out the top five.
On a restart on lap 26, Byron hit the wall between Turns 2 and 3 which caused a flat tire on his No. 17 Chevrolet. The tire carcass came off and landed on the track which forced NASCAR to throw a caution for debris.
Stage 3
Following the break between Stages 2 and 3, most of the lead lap cars elected to pit with Hill first off pit road. Byron remained on the track and inherited the lead when the race resumed with 44 laps to go.
Parker Retzclaff got loose and went up the track in Turn 1 on the restart which triggered a four-car wreck that set up another restart with 40 laps remaining.
Creed was the first of the lead lap cars to hit pit road under green with 30 laps remaining to make his final pit stop of the race for new tires and fuel to make it to the finish.
Allgaier – who got off-sequence due to a pit road penalty earlier in the race – took over the lead on lap 67 with plans to stretch his fuel to the finish. A caution on lap 70 for the stopped car of Stephen Mallozi helped his cause.
Jeremy Clements got loose racing three-wide, spun and hit the wall on lap 75 to set up another restart with 12 laps remaining and Allgaier still out front.
With nine laps remaining, Custer went to the outside of Allgaier and got around him for the lead.
Shane van Gisbergen wrecked in Turn 2 after contact with Mayer to bring out the eighth caution of the race and set up a restart with four laps to go.
After a wild side-by-side duel for the lead, Custer finally got clear with three laps remaining.
