Date: March 2, 2019
Race Name: Boyd Gaming 300 (Race 3 of 33)
Venue: Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Series: NASCAR Xfinity Series
Results: Chase Briscoe: 8th | Cole Custer: 9th
Point Standings:
– Cole Custer: 2nd; trails points leader by 18 points
– Chase Briscoe: 13th; trails points leader by 58 points
Cole Custer / Haas Automation Ford Mustang Recap:
– Qualifying was canceled due to inclement weather. The starting lineup was set based on 2018 Owner’s Points.
– As a result of winning the 2018 Owner’s Points, Custer started on the pole of the Boyd Gaming 300.
– He finished first in Stage 1 to earn 10 stage points and one playoff point. Custer lost three spots on pit road following the stage end.
– The No. 00 team started fourth and finished fourth in Stage 2 to earn seven additional stage points.
– The Haas Automation Ford Mustang started fourth in the final stage after a four-tire pit stop.
– Custer fell back to seventh early in Stage 3 and would gain two spots before pitting for four-tires, fuel and a track bar adjustment running fifth with 51 laps to go.
– Custer would restart fifth after a caution with eight laps remaining in the race.
– A caution with two laps remaining forced Custer to restart in fifth. Custer experienced problems when shifting into third gear, but was able to score a ninth-place finish.
– Custer scored his second consecutive top-10 finish of 2019 and his third straight at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Race Winner: Kyle Busch of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)
Next Up: NASCAR Xfinity Series 200 at 4 p.m. EST on Saturday, March 9 from ISM Raceway broadcast by Fox Sports 1.
Cole Custer, driver of the No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang:
“We won the first stage and led just about every lap during that run, but we lost track position on pit road and restarts. I thought we had a really good long run car, but it’s hard to make up all that time we lost at the beginning of the run. At the end of the race it felt like we ran out of gas on the restart and gave up a ton of time and we also picked up some damage. We had a pretty decent car but couldn’t get the entire run to work. We will go to ISM Raceway next weekend where we will focus on making everything go our way and hopefully end up in victory lane.”
