As Cole Custer continues to hunt for a second straight NASCAR Xfinity Series championship, he’ll have to wait another week to attempt to lock into the Championship 4.
Custer finished runner-up to winner Austin Hill on Saturday at Homestead-Miami Speedway after leading 67 of the 200 laps at the 1.5-mile oval.
While the driver of the No. 00 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford looked to be the driver to beat in the closing laps, Hill chased down Custer on the last run with 12 laps to go, eventually taking the lead and win away.
Prior to Hill’s late-race charge, Custer “thought we kind of had them there.”
“That last run, I don’t think we changed anything, we just got pretty loose that run,” Custer said. “I don’t know if we got that much worse but the 21 I think got way better than what they were the run before. I hate it. We had NXT and CW on the car and I wish we got them a win.
“Points-wise, I think we will be in a solid spot, and we just have to go into Martinsville with everything we’ve got.”
With his second-place result, it allowed Custer to stay above the cutline by 28 points. While he’s safe heading to Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, Custer knows the 0.526-mile can present chaos with a Championship 4 berth on the line.
“It is going to be crazy,” Custer said. “No matter what it is always going to be crazy. We have to bring our best stuff there because you never know who is going to win.
“We just have to go out there and I think being the team that we are, we will be in the fight.”