Cole Custer Tag

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Chase Elliott is a former NASCAR Cup Series champion and currently the 2022 title leader. But finally scoring a dramatic victory Sunday afternoon at his home track – Atlanta Motor Speedway – in front of a vocal and adoring home crowd ranks right up there as far as he’s concerned. Elliott’s No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet led a race best 96 of the 260 laps and held off a charging field to win Sunday’s Quaker State 400 Presented by Walmart, ultimately securing the trophyRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service PLYMOUTH, Wis. – Defending race winner Chase Elliott couldn’t have asked for a better start to July 4 weekend at Road America. Making up more than three tenths of a second over the final three corners at the 4.048-mile road course, Elliott narrowly edged a disappointed Chase Briscoe for the pole position for Sunday’s Kwik Trip 250 (3 p.m. ET on USA Network, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Running late in the final round of Saturday’s time trials, Elliott navigated the mammoth circuit inRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Defending race winner Kyle Larson will start Sunday’s Toyota / Save Mart 350  (4 p.m. ET on FS1, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) from the same position he finished the race last summer – leading the field.  Larson earned his fourth career NASCAR Cup Series pole position at the 1.99-mile Northern California road course on Saturday afternoon with a blistering lap of 91.935 mph in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. He was fastest in practice and both rounds of qualifying to definitively earnRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor After a rare Easter race date playing in the dirt at Bristol, the NASCAR Cup Series packs up and heads to Talladega Superspeedway, where Sunday’s running of the GEICO 500 awaits. The first nine races of the season have embodied unpredictability, with eight different winners in the first quarter of the season. That trend is likely to continue this weekend as superspeedway racing, especially at Talladega, is all about unpredictability. Since opening its doors in 1969, the 2.66-mile track just off Interstate 20 in Eastern AlabamaRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Charge from the back nets Cole Custer first pole on Bristol Dirt BRISTOL, Tenn. – Cole Custer charged from ninth to second in the first of four 15-lap qualifying heat races on Saturday to earn the pole position for Sunday night’s Food City Dirt Race at the Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt track (7 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Custer surged from fifth to second moments after a restart with six laps left in the qualifying race. He finished second toRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor AUSTIN, Texas – Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas marks the road course debut of the NASCAR Cup Series Next Gen car. With limited track time ahead of the race, much of how the new car will race on the 20-turn, 3.41-mile road course remains a mystery. Despite the unknowns, a number of drivers explained how they think the car will race when the green flag drops on Sunday. Chase Briscoe – No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford “I think you’re going toRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor AUSTIN, Texas – With limited track time ahead of Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas, a number of NASCAR Cup Series drivers took the opportunity to climb behind the wheel in the lower series to get some additional laps around the 20-turn, 3.41-mile road course. Saturday’s first race, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series XPEL 225, would feature Kyle Busch, Alex Bowman, and Kaz Grala trying to gather valuable intel on the tricky track. Bowman started highest among the Cup regulars fromRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service AUSTIN, Texas – A.J. Allmendinger was fast and agile when he needed to be Saturday afternoon negotiating the famed Circuit of The Americas and reminding the field just why he’s considered one of NASCAR’s road course superstars. Allmendinger’s No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet took the checkered flag by 2.039-seconds over Austin Hill’s No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet in the first road course race of the year. It was the 40-year-old veteran’s first NASCAR Xfinity Series win of the 2022 season and 11th ofRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor AUSTIN, Texas – The stars of the NASCAR Cup Series took to the track at Circuit of the Americas on Saturday morning for their only track time ahead of Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix. Drivers and teams would have a limited practice session before rolling right into qualifying to set the 39-car field for the race. Kyle Busch Fastest Overall in Practice Split into two groups (A and B), with limited time to dial in their cars before qualifying, they wasted no time in getting upRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Californian Cole Custer was the only former Auto Club Speedway winner in the field for Saturday’s Production Alliance 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series race in Fontana, Calif. Three overtimes, 12 cautions and more than three hours of official race time later, Custer was still the only former winner in the Fontana field, having beaten runner-up Noah Gragson to the finish line by .565 seconds. It was a long day’s journey into night, a race that started in mid-afternoon and unexpectedly ended under the lights inRead More