FONTANA — Cole Custer needs to get out to a fast start in 2023. Right now, the rain isn’t helping.
“They said this is a record amount of rain and snow for February, so it’s pretty crazy to happen this weekend,” said Custer on Friday from Auto Club Speedway.
The Ladera Ranch native was the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series rookie of the year but he’s back in the second-tier Xfinity Series this season, racing in the No. 00 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Mustang in Saturday’s Production Alliance Group 300 (2 p.m. on FS1).
“As drivers, you get used to the hurry-up-and-wait,” Custer said. “We’re just waiting it out and seeing what the weather looks like and if anything they’ll delay us to another day.”
Champing at the bit to get out on the 2-mile tri-oval one more time, Custer expressed disappointment in the proposed changes to the primary race shape at Auto Club Speedway.
“It’s sad. This track is one of the best that we go to,” Custer said. “Every single driver looks forward to coming here because it is so racy. We wish we could keep it going. It’s the track I went to as a 5-year-old, asking for autographs from drivers, so it’s always been a special for me.”
Owner of one Cup Series win and one serious fine, Custer, 25, knows this season is pivotal for his career.
“It’s going to be a year of growth I think (and) I’m hoping to win a lot of races this season and that gets you in a lot of good conversations in order to get back (to the Cup Series),” Custer said.
Seen as an industry prodigy, Custer’s father, Joe Custer, is the team president of Stewart-Haas Racing and the chief operating officer of Haas F1 Team.
“I’ve obviously been lucky enough to grow up around it and start racing at 5, and it’s all you know,” Custer said. “From the time I was little, I was racing go-carts and quarter midgets, and it’s always been what I’ve loved to do.”
After growing up racing locally at Irwindale Speedway, Perris Auto Speedway and…
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