Skip to content

COLE CUSTER – 2020 Daytona Road Course Race Report

Event: Inaugural Go Bowling 235 (Round 23 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway (14-turn, 3.61-mile road course)
Format: 65 laps, broken into three stages (15 laps/15 laps/35 laps)
Start/Finish: 26th/22nd (Running, completed 65 of 65 laps)
Point Standing: 20th with 413 points, 526 out of first

Race Winner: Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Winner: Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 2 Winner: Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)

Stage 1 Recap (Laps 1-15):             

● Cole Custer started 26th and finished ninth. Custer earned two bonus points.
● On lap two, Custer reported he probably had right front fender damage to his No. 41 HaasTooling.com Mustang. Spotter Andy Houston confirmed the damage but Custer continued on.
● On lap eight, Custer relayed to the No. 41 crew that he needed more forward drive from the 19th spot.
● The entire stage ran under green and Custer finished ninth after not pitting until the stage break. During the break, the No. 41 team spent additional time on pit road to repair the Ford Mustang’s fender.

Stage 2 Recap (Laps 16-30):

● Custer started in 37th and finished 34th.
● The California native made a scheduled green-flag pit stop on lap 27 from the 28th position for fuel, four tires and adjustments.
● The HaasTooling.com driver ended Stage 2 in 34th and reported his Mustang was “really struggling with drive.” Custer pitted during the break for fuel, four tires and adjustments.

Final Stage Recap (Laps 31-65):

● Custer started 28th, finished 22nd.
● During the weather delay caution on lap-35, Custer told the No. 41 crew that his Mustang had “no drive at all” while in the 29th spot.
● Once the event resumed, Custer pitted on lap 38 and restarted 23rd on lap 40.
● Custer worked his way forward and made a scheduled green-flag pit stop on lap 50.
● On lap 55 Custer was in the 18th position, and on lap 58 he was 16th.
● The final caution of the race was displayed on lap 60 and the rookie driver pitted for service and restarted 22nd.
● After contact in the closing laps, Custer was unable to advance his position and ultimately finished 22nd.

Notes:

● Custer made his 26th career NASCAR Cup Series start and his first on a road course.
● Prior to the Go Bowling 235, Custer last raced on the Daytona road course in 2019 during the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge sports-car race.
● Custer made 11 career road-course starts in the NASCAR Xfinity Series prior to moving to the NASCAR Cup Series this year. He finished among the top-10 nine times with a best finish of fourth in 2018 at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
● Chase Elliott won the inaugural Go Bowling 235 to score his eighth career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his second of the season and his fourth on a road course. His margin of victory over second-place Denny Hamlin was .202 of a second.
● There were four caution periods for a total of seven laps.
● Thirty-two of the 39 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
● Kevin Harvick remains the championship leader after Daytona with a 118-point advantage over second-place Hamlin.

Cole Custer, Driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

“Today definitely didn’t go the way I was hoping. It just wasn’t our day in the HaasTooling.com Mustang. We had a little damage early and the race just didn’t go our way. I’m ready to get to Dover next weekend and get back on an oval.”

Next Up:

The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is a doubleheader Aug. 22-23 at Dover (Del.) International Speedway. Each race is 311 laps around the 1-mile, concrete oval. Start time for each race is 4 p.m. EDT and live coverage of both will be provided by NBCSN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.