For the second week in a row, Cole Custer wins the pole award in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. This time, it comes at Phoenix. Custer now has 20 career pole awards in the Xfinity Series.
Fun fact, Cole Custer was the pole sitter for the 2023 edition of this Phoenix race. He finished P12 on the day, not where he wanted. However, we can’t forget that he won the championship race at Phoenix to house the Xfinity Series trophy at the end of the year.
Today, Custer leads the field to green in the Call811.com Every Dig. Every Time. 200 today at Phoenix. The Stewart-Haas Racing driver will try to finish P1 this week from the pole instead of P2 like he did last week.
Custer wins the pole with a 27.380-second lap.
Cole Custer picked up his first top-10/top-5 finish of the season at Las Vegas last week. Now he has his eyes set on Victory Lane. He doesn’t want to be happy just to be on the pole, he wants to get the job done.
Chandler Smith will start on the front row with Custer. Corey Heim, Riley Herbst, Justin Allgaier, Sheldon Creed, Jesse Love, Aric Almirola, John Hunter Nemechek, and AJ Allmendinger make up the top-10. Five Toyotas in that group.
Cole Custer looking to make a statement early
Austin Hill has two wins already this season. That means for other championship contenders, they need to get moving now before it’s too late. Chandler Smith ties Hill with three top-5 finishes this season, and it’s no surprise they are the top two drivers in the points.
However, not too far back is Cole Custer. Already, he has had a better start to the season than he had in 2023. He was not great to begin the season and had to really get used to the Xfinity Series again after being in Cup for a few years.
I like that both Custer and Herbst were fast this week in qualifying. I also like that both of them have started this season off better than last year. It’s clear that Herbst winning his first race and Custer winning his championship have increased the confidence overall at SHR.
For all of the struggles this organization is having in the Cup Series, you couldn’t tell by looking at how strong their Xfinity Series program is right now. Cole Custer on the pole, Herbst starting P4, let’s see if these Stewart-Haas cars can get it done today in the desert.
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