AVONDALE, Ariz. — The third time was the charm for Cole Custer, who became a first-time Xfinity Series champion by winning the 2023 season finale at Phoenix Raceway on a wild overtime restart.
The No. 00 Ford driver beat John Hunter Nemechek, Justin Allgaier and Sam Mayer to capture his elusive first title on the circuit. Custer had finished runner-up in the Xfinity championship race in 2018-19 before moving to NASCAR’s premier series for three seasons.
He returned to the Xfinity Series with Stewart-Haas Racing and was reunited with longtime team engineer Jonathan Toney, whose first season as a crew chief ended with Custer’s first title.
Custer was in first entering the final green-white-checkered restart, but he immediately fell to third after choosing the outside lane as John Hunter Nemechek (who restarted on the inside in second) and Justin Allgaier split Custer at the green flag.
Custer patiently surged past both cars to reclaim the lead from Allgaier off Turn 4 and lead the final two laps.
“I thought it was over,” Custer, who led a race-high 96 of 202 laps, told NBC Sports’ Marty Snider. “I went from first to third, and I was able to shift the car all night. And Doug Yates’ horsepower worked out (and) pulled me off the corner. I can’t believe we won that thing after going back to third on that restart.”
Sheldon Creed finished second, followed by Allgaier, Riley Herbst and Mayer. Nemechek crashed on the final lap and finished 28th.
Custer, 25, scored his 13th career win and third of the season but first since Chicago in July. The team struggled at times during the 16-race stretch, and Custer nearly was eliminated from championship contention in a slam-bang race at Martinsville Speedway last week.
“Man, I can’t say enough about these guys,” Custer said. We started the year off, and it was a struggle, and we had to kind of dig deep with each other, really talk about how to get better and to see how much this group has grown through the year.
“I think these guys have just really always believed in me all year, and I just can’t thank them enough for giving me really fast race cars and still believing in me when things weren’t going great.”
Custer hand-picked Toney, a longtime SHR employee who has known the driver since childhood, to lead his team this season.
“To be a part of something I knew I loved, I wanted to work with J.T.,” Custer said. “I knew he was the guy that could make it happen, and I would not want to do it with anybody else.”