NASCAR Cup Series

Custer's first stand: 16-year-old youngest to win in NASCAR

Published Sep. 20, 2014 3:00 p.m. ET

share

facebookxredditlink

foxsports

Cole Custer powered past Matt Crafton on a late restart to win the Camping World Truck Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Saturday, becoming the youngest winner in NASCAR touring series history in the process.

Custer entered Saturday's UNOH 175 sitting on the pole, but his struggles began before he could even get the truck running.

A faulty battery connection prevented Custer's No. 00 Chevrolet from rolling off the grid with the rest of the field, but once the issue was resolved there was little that could stop the young driver.

Leading 148 of the 175 laps, Custer certainly had the best truck in the field, but his dominant performance was forced to be a comeback story in the closing stages of the race as a string of cautions and an ill-timed four-tire pit stop forced the young driver to put on quite the performance.

In the end, Custer was able to beat defending series champion Matt Crafton on the final restart of the day with just four laps to go to score his first career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victory.

Darrell Wallace Jr. also ended up passing Crafton in the closing laps to finish second, while Crafton ended up third.

"I was really worried," Custer said of restarting seventh with 23 laps to go. "It was so hard to pass, even lappers. I couldn't believe we got through all those guys. The air affected it so much. We had some great restarts, which helped us a lot."

In earning the win, Custer became the youngest driver to win a race in NASCAR touring series history at 16 years, seven months and 28 days. The win came in just his seventh career Truck Series start.

"I've been coming to these races since I was really young," he said. "I've looked up to this series and everyone that has raced in this series. I could never imagine being here racing and winning in this series. I can't even explain how amazing this feels."

For how great Custer felt, Crafton was left wonder what could have been.

The leader in the series standings coming into the weekend, Crafton was never able to make a lap in qualifying as a battery connection cable failed while the team prepared to make their run.

Starting at the rear of the field, Crafton was on a mission from the drop of the green flag. In the first four laps, Crafton's No. 88 Toyota moved from 30th to 17th, making most of his moved at the bottom of the track. After just 20 laps, Crafton had moved into the top 10, but was not showing any signs of slowing down. By Lap 65, Crafton jumped into the top five after moving by Darrell Wallace Jr.

Taking the lead on a restart with just 23 laps to go, a string of cautions set up a number of late-race restarts in which the defending series champion was challenged for the lead each time.

The final restart of the day did not go according to plan for Crafton, as he spun the tires of the No. 88 Toyota and allowed Custer and Wallace to sneak by.

"I just got beat," Crafton said after his third-place finish. "I spun the tires and I couldn't get it in fourth gear, to be totally honest. Once I spun the tires and got beat, I was screwed there. First I couldn't get it in gear and then everybody got a run on me. My bad."

In finishing second to Custer, Wallace Jr. secured his sixth top-two finish of the 2014 season.

Crafton, Johnny Sauter, John Hunter Nemechek, Cameron Hayley, Erik Jones, Tyler Reddick, Joey Coulter and Ryan Blaney rounded out the top 10.

Starting out front, Custer was dominant throughout much of Saturday's race. The rookie driver gave up the lead for the first time of the day when he hit pit road on Lap 69 of 175.

After the green flag stops cycled through, it was the No. 00 of Custer that was back in front of the field with Blaney, Jones, Wallace Jr., Hayley and Crafton in tow.

Retaking the lead, Custer did not hold back as he continued to dominate the race and stretching his lead over Blaney to over five seconds by Lap 100. That lead was completely erased when TJ Bell brought out the first caution of the day on Lap 101, bringing the leaders to pit road for the second time.

The 101-lap green flag run was the longest green flag stretch to start a race in the history of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.

Custer was able to hold onto the lead on the yellow flag stop and ensuing restart with 70 laps to go.

While it appeared Custer would drive away with the win, a caution with 29 laps to go changed the entire complexion of the race.

Under caution, Custer led the field to pit road, while Erik Jones opted to stay on the track. On pit road, the majority of the leaders took just two tires, while Custer took four tires and left pit road sixth.

On the restart with 23 laps to go, Crafton was able to wrestle the lead away as Jones' No. 51 truck caught the wall ad fell through the field. With four fresh tires, Custer jumped from seventh to fourth on the initial restart before German Quiroga spun to bring out yet another caution just three laps later.

After a record-setting stretch of green flag racing earlier in the day, it was yellow fever in the closing laps of Saturday's race.

With the field racing hard after a restart with 16 laps to go, Ryan Blaney went for a spin after contact from Timothy Peters while racing for the fourth spot. The spin brought the caution back out and set up yet another late-race restart.

Restarting the race with 11 laps to go, Wallace spun the tires leading the inside line coming to the green flag. Taking advantage of Wallace's mistake, Custer jumped to the bottom and took it three-wide to take the second spot and put the pressure on Crafton for the lead.

The cautions were not over, however, as Brennan Newberry got loose on the bottom of the track and spun his No. 9 Chevrolet to bring out the yellow with nine laps to go and set up the final restart of the day with four laps to go.

Next weekend the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series heads to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the Rhino Linings 350.

share

Get more from NASCAR Cup Series Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more

in this topic

NASCAR Cup Series