BRISTOL, Tenn. — Cole Custer recovered from an early brush with the outside wall to win Friday‘s Food City 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway, the race that set the field for the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs.
Custer‘s second victory of the season, combined with a litany of trouble that befell Justin Allgaier, gave the driver of the No. 00 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford an unlikely come-from-behind victory in the battle for the regular-season title and an accompanying 15 playoff-point bonus.
Custer, who led a race-high 104 laps, took the top spot for good with a pass of Sheldon Creed on Lap 209 of 300. In winning for the first time at Bristol and the 15th time in his career, Custer crossed the finish line 0.896-seconds ahead of Creed, who now has 13 runner-up finishes to his credit without an Xfinity win.
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“This is huge, because our confidence was going down there the last month,” said Custer, the reigning series champion who will begin his title defense Sept. 28 at Kansas Speedway (4 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). “To get this win really means a lot…
“It‘s unbelievable. These guys never give up. It‘s been a tough month, but to be able to lead into the playoffs like this, we‘re going to really bring it to them.”
The race also secured playoff spots for the final two drivers on the postseason grid. Sammy Smith and Parker Kligerman finished 15th and 16th, respectively, to earn their playoff berths.
Chandler Smith ran third and Jesse Love fourth on Friday, both having already secured playoff spots. Ryan Truex was fifth, followed by Brandon Jones, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Ryan Sieg (who missed the final playoff spot by 36 points) and playoff-bound Sam Mayer.
The battle for the regular-season championship took more twists and turns than a game of Dungeons and Dragons. Custer hit the outside wall on Lap 2 and cut a tire, temporarily jeopardizing his second-place position in the standings.
But Justin Allgaier, the driver Custer was chasing for the regular-season title, had his own share of ill fortune on Lap 52. Having led every lap to that point, Allgaier was cruising toward what would have been his 15th stage win of the season when the Chevrolet of Austin Green bounced off the outside wall into Allgaier‘s path.
Contact between the Camaros sheared the rear bumper cover off Allgaier‘s No. 7 Chevy. After a pit stop to repair the car‘s right-rear quarter panel, Allgaier continued. Allgaier pitted on Lap 60 and stayed on the track during the stage break after Lap 85, putting him fifth for a restart on Lap 96.
He was second for a restart on Lap 127 but his sojourn in the top five didn‘t last. On Lap 153, contact between Creed‘s Toyota and Allgaier‘s Chevy sent the No. 7 down the track nose-first into the inside wall.
During repairs, Allgaier‘s car dragged a saw out of the pits, incurring a penalty. From that point on, the JR Motorsports driver ran roughly three seconds off the pace, rapidly losing laps and positions.
When Custer took the race lead from Creed on Lap 209, he had the regular-season lead, having erased the 43-point advantage Allgaier carried into the race. With his victory, Custer secured the regular-season crown by three points over Allgaier, who nevertheless will enter the postseason as the top seed with 34 playoff points to Custer‘s 28.
“I don‘t really have any words for tonight,” said Allgaier, who finished 30th, 10 laps down. “It started with getting the damage from the wreck in front of us. There was nothing we could do. And then, just racing, trying to get as many stage points as we could, and I think the 18 (Creed) came off the wall a little bit.
“I‘m really bummed about tonight. We‘ll go back and talk about it … We had the best car tonight. It was very obvious from the beginning of the race that it was the best car, and nothing to show for it.”
NOTE: Post-race inspection was completed without issue in the Xfinity Series garage, confirming Cole Custer as the winner.