PORTLAND, Ore. - It’s been said that cooler heads prevail. Cole Custer certainly did Saturday afternoon in the Pacific Northwest in the NASCAR Xfinity Series' Pacific Office Automation 147 at Portland International Raceway (PIR).
Custer had a fast car all day in the Xfinity Series’ second annual visit to PIR. He started the race from the second position and ran up front all day.
But thanks in part to on-track feuds by other competitors, he received some extra help in his first-ever win in NASCAR competition at a road course.
Race polesitter Sheldon Creed led the first several laps early on and won Stage 1 with a thrilling last turn, last lap pass of John Hunter Nemechek. But that would not be the last time those two drivers would swap positions.
On the final lap of the second stage, it was Creed Vs. Nemechek, Round 2. Creed was the leader and Nemechek was in hot pursuit. Nemechek tapped Creed, who spun.
“John Hunter, man,” Creed said over his radio.
“Yeah, he’s a ff***ing a****** and always drives like that,” a member of the No. 2 team told their driver in response
“We’re destroying his car when we get back to him,” Creed responded.
Meanwhile, Creed’s spin allowed Custer to jump up to P2 and force a drag race with Nemechek, ironically on the drag strip that makes up the front stretch at PIR. Custer narrowly won by 0.012s and picked up extra stage points as a result.
In the third and final stage, Custer led from the green for only a few seconds when he blew into the Turn 1 chicane and lost several positions. Justin Allgaier took the race lead as Creed began hunting down Nemechek again.
Once he caught up, Creed returned the favor, spinning Nemechek in the exact same position he got spun.
“Knew that was coming. All good,” Nemechek said.
“F*** him,” a member of the No. 20 team responded.
“We’ll talk after the race,” Nemechek said.
Back up front, Allgaier looked like he was racing towards back-to-back wins in the Xfinity Series. But a late race caution due to the stalled car of Riley Herbst forced an overtime finish and made it anyone’s race again.
On the restart, Parker Kilgerman made it three-wide for the lead with Allgaier and Creed as the trio raced into the narrow chicane. Perhaps unsurprisingly, all three cars made contact and went off-course.
The mistake allowed Custer to sneak past all of them and take the lead. He was then able to hold off Allgaier to score his first Xfinity Series win of the season.
“Man, I’m just so happy,” Custer said. “I’ve never won a road course race before.
“I’ve been so close so many times, and it’s just so awesome to win this. I’m pumped for the rest of the year. We’ve got fast cars.”
While Custer celebrated with his team in Victory Lane, a disappointed Allgaier stood on pit road.
“I just flat got run over,” Allgaier said. “That’s the disappointing part. When you have such a good car, you do all the right things and lead all those laps - we had to have led close to half the race,
"I guess it’s hard when you have those moments. But the things we were good at today are going to be great for Sonoma (the next race on the schedule, also a road course). So we can hold our heads high and we can go into next week and hopefully have a good finish.”
After the race, Creed and Nemechek met, but no punches were thrown.
“He just came to apologize,” Creed said. “I don’t think he owed it to me. If I didn’t get even with him, yeah, maybe. But I got even with him. We’ll continue to race each other hard.”
While Creed and Nemechek left the fighting on the track, Jeb Burton fought with members of his former team. Kaulig driver Chandler Smith bumped Burton’s Jordan Anderson Racing ride off-course in the closing laps.
“He’s going to get a broken fI***ing nose after this race,” Burton said over the radio after the incident.
After the race, Burton got into a scuffle with Smith’s crew before eventually leaving.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series now heads to Sonoma Raceway for the DoorDash 250 on Saturday, June 10.
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