Custer wins at Texas for shot at series championship

FORT WORTH, TEXAS >> Cole Custer’s first career victory at Homestead last year wasn’t for the NASCAR Xfinity championship.

When he gets back to South Florida in two weeks, the 20-year-old Custer will have a chance to win a title there.

Custer locked in one of the four championship-contending spots for the season finale with his second career win. He regained the lead and won at Texas on Saturday when he pushed past rookie driver Tyler Reddick on the final lap soon after a restart.

“We haven’t won all year but we have been so close. It starts to frustrate you,” Custer said. “We kept going and this is a perfect time to do it.”

The final restart with two laps left came after the 13th caution, the most ever in an Xfinity race at Texas. The final charge to the finish left Custer’s No. 00 Ford with a winning margin of .162 of a second, the third-closest at the 1 1/2-mile track.

Custer, who led four times for 16 laps, went low near the bumper of Reddick’s No. 9 Chevrolet in Turn 1 on the 200th and final lap and got past for the lead. Both drivers maintained control when they made hard contact on the backstretch.

Reddick, who led a racehigh 54 laps, did take over the series points lead from retiring driver Elliott Sadler, who finished eighth and dropped to second in points.

There are three championship-contending spots for Homestead that will be decided next week at Phoenix.

Daniel Hemric is third in points, ahead of Justin Allgaier, Matt Tifft and Custer.