WINSTON-SALEM (Feb. 1, 2025) – Cole Custer fired off fourth in Saturday night’s fourth and final heat race at Bowman Gray Stadium. The team was optimistic after a solid qualifying effort earlier in the evening, but an incident on lap five would prove too much to overcome, with Custer settling for a ninth-place finish. The No. 41 Team will start 16th in the last chance qualifier (LCQ) on Sunday night at 6:00 p.m. ET, and need to finish in the top two to advance to the main event.
Custer and the team struggled throughout the first two practice sessions – finishing in the 31st position heading into the four-minute qualifying round. However, the team continued to battle, and Custer climbed his way back up the leaderboard and qualified 16th, to give him the fourth-place starting spot in the last heat race of the night.
After an incident with AJ Allmendinger on lap five, Custer slipped back to the seventh position and was never able to recover. He was shuffled back after restarting in the outside lane, and dropped two more spots before crossing the finish line in ninth place.
Up Next
Custer will have a chance to race his way into the main event in the LCQ on Sunday at 6:00 p.m. ET on FOX. The top two finishers in the LCQ will advance to the Clash at 8:00 p.m. ET on FOX, and start 21st and 22nd, respectively. The 23rd and final position in the Clash is reserved for the driver who finished highest in the 2024 season points standings that did not otherwise transfer via the heat races or LCQ.
About Haas Factory Team
The Haas Factory Team is a NASCAR Cup and Xfinity program owned by Gene Haas, founder of Haas Automation. Beginning in 2025, the team will feature Cole Custer driving the No. 41 Ford Mustang Dark Horse in the NASCAR Cup Series, while Sheldon Creed and Sam Mayer take on the Xfinity Series in the No. 00 and No. 41 Ford Mustangs, respectively. Based in Kannapolis, North Carolina, the Haas Factory Team reflects a commitment to performance and engineering excellence, carrying forward Gene Haas’s commitment to motorsports.
