Cole Custer will be returning as the driver of the No. 00 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing for the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series season.
The news comes as the 25-year-old Custer from Ladera Ranch, California, is set to compete for this year’s Xfinity Series driver’s championship in this weekend’s season-finale event at Phoenix Raceway after being one of four competitors to transfer to this year’s Championship 4 round on the strength of three consecutive results within the top 20 during the Round of 8.
Custer, who made his return to full-time Xfinity Series competition after spending the previous three seasons in the NASCAR Cup Series, has accumulated two victories this season: Portland International Raceway in June and the inaugural, rain-shortened Chicago Street Course in July. He has also steered the No. 00 Ford to six poles, 13 top-five results, 20 top-10 results, 490 laps led and an average-finishing result of 11.1 through 32 starts.
Custer, who made his first five career starts in the Xfinity Series with JR Motorsports in 2016, became a full-time Xfinity competitor in 2017 when he joined Stewart-Haas Racing to pilot the No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang. Despite missing the Championship 4 cutline by a narrow margin, he achieved his first career victory in the season-finale event at Homestead-Miami Speedway after leading a race-high 182 of 200 laps. He also accumulated a total of seven top-five results, 19 top-10 results and an average-finishing result of 13.3 before settling in fifth place in the final standings.
In the following two seasons, Custer accumulated a total of eight victories, 12 poles, 31 top-five results, 50 top-10 results, 1,311 laps led, and an average-finishing result of 9.0. Despite transferring to the Championship 4 round, he ended up in the runner-up spot in the final standings during both seasons, though he managed to achieve the 2018 Xfinity owner’s title for Stewart-Haas Racing.
While Custer spent the years 2020-22 in the Cup Series for Stewart-Haas Racing, where he claimed the 2020 Cup Rookie-of-the-Year title, he made a total of six starts in the Xfinity circuit between 2021-22. During the stint, he recorded a victory at Auto Club Speedway in February 2022, which was the first in NASCAR history for SS-Green Light Racing, and four results in the top 10.
Through 142 career starts in the Xfinity Series, Custer has achieved 12 victories, 18 poles, 54 top-five results, 95 top-10 results, 2,189 laps led and an average finishing result of 10.8. He has also recorded one victory in the Cup Series, two in the Craftsman Truck Series and one in the ARCA Menards Series as he aims to win his first NASCAR national touring series title in the Xfinity circuit this upcoming weekend.
With his plans for next season set, Custer’s quest to win this year’s Xfinity Series championship will occur in the 2023 season-finale event at Phoenix Raceway on Saturday, November 4. The finale’s broadcast time is slated to occur at 7 p.m. ET on USA Network.
