Custer made his Truck Series debut in 2014, starting nine races and scoring a surprise victory at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. He was the youngest race winner in series history.
Another part-time season in the Truck Series in 2015, which included another victory at World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Ill., was followed by a full-time season in 2016. He also made five starts in the Xfinity Series in 2016, which prepared him for his full-time Xfinity Series debut one year later.
Two solid, but not spectacular seasons, followed as Custer honed his craft in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. In 2017, he finished the year fifth in the standings, and won the finale at Florida’s Homestead-Miami Speedway.
He followed that up with another strong season in 2018, including a victory at Texas Motor Speedway. He came up short in the championship fight, finishing second to Tyler Reddick in the Homestead championship race.
It all set Custer up for his breakthrough season. He won a race, two poles and finished in the top five three times in the first five races of the season.
That victory came at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., and he held off Kyle Busch during the run to the checkered flag.
“That was pretty huge,” Custer acknowledged. “Being able to beat Kyle was one of the biggest things I’ve ever done. Kyle is going to go down as one of the best people to race in our sport, so I think to be able to hold him off at the end there was really, really special. When he was behind me with 15 to go I was like, ‘Man, I don’t know if I’m going to get this when you’ve got the 18 car in your mirror.’ I was just able to hit my marks and we had a fast enough car to keep in front of him. It was definitely one of the biggest things I’ve done.”
It hasn’t always been easy for Custer, but he’s had a lot of help to get him where he is. His father has always been supportive, and he’s also had the help and support of team owners Gene Haas and Tony Stewart.
“Gene has been huge for me. I wouldn’t be where I’m at without Gene supporting me for as long as he has,” Custer said. “I can’t thank him enough, obviously. He’s built a really great race team and I think, hopefully, I can win some more races for him. And then Tony, it’s obviously awesome to drive for Tony because he is one of the legends of our sport.
“You can ask him for a lot of advice and he was one of my heroes when I was younger. Being able to drive for him is pretty surreal. You can’t really ask for two better owners really. They’re a big combination and you can get a lot of advice from both of them.”
Custer also has Stewart-Haas Racing teammates such as 2014 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick and Xfinity Series driver Chase Briscoe to lean on.
“There are a lot of great drivers and people at SHR, so it’s just a matter of how you use them I guess,” Custer said. “I’ve been able to ask Kevin Harvick for a lot of advice and he’s been huge in getting me going. I about called him every single weekend when I got started going in the Xfinity Series. He was a huge help to me. Obviously, all the guys that drive over there are huge. If you can get any advice from them it’s going to help you a lot.
“I think me and Chase working together has definitely helped the Xfinity program by having more notes going on and everything like that. Everything is just coming together.”
The immediate and obvious goal for this season is the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship, but what is to follow is also pretty obvious. It seems predetermined that at some point Custer will make the move to the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.
He’s already had the chance to get his feet wet at the top level of NASCAR, making three starts in 2018 in a car fielded by Rick Ware Racing and prepared by Stewart-Haas Racing.
Is that a sign of things to come? Possibly. For now, Custer would rather focus on delivering his dad and his team owners, Haas and Stewart, their first NASCAR Xfinity Series championship.
“We’ve ran really good there the last couple of years,” Custer said of Homestead-Miami Speedway. “Last year at the end of the race Tyler Reddick ran the top really well. I’m going to have to think about it that week I guess. I’m going to have to think about if I’m going to commit to the wall or if I’m going to kind of run my own race. I think the way I ran my own race last year was good enough to win, it just didn’t play out the right way with the long green-flag runs. I think we’ll definitely have a great shot at winning the championship this year.”
Regardless of what Custer does, his father is proud of what he’s achieved.
“I’m very proud as a parent,” Joe Custer said. “He tries to do the right thing, he cares about his teammates, he cares about the guys on his team. He cares about his family. It’s not just the racing part. Some people think Cole is a quiet kid, but in fact he’s actually not. He’s actually raging inside. He just takes it out on the race track.”