Custer Finishes 28th Place in Cup Series at HMS
Xfinity Series
41 – Sam Mayer
Sam Mayer entered Saturday’s Xfinity race at Homestead-Miami Speedway with an opportunity to cash in on an additional $100,000 bonus, and he came within only a few car lengths of doing it. Because he was one of the top four full-time Xfinity finishers on March 15th in Las Vegas, Mayer was eligible for the Dash 4 Cash Bonus—and needed to finish ahead of the other three drivers (Justin Allgaier, Jesse Love, and Austin Hill) to win it.
For the entire race on Saturday, the Audibel Ford was very much in contention for the big payday. Continuing his hot start to 2025, Mayer qualified 6th and kept the car in the mix, racing with the leaders throughout the event. He finished 5th in Stage One and 2nd in Stage Two, collecting 15 additional stage points. He also led 22 laps and proved he was a threat to win.
As Stage Three wore on, it appeared Cup Series star Kyle Larson, who led a race-high 132 laps, was the driver to beat. Still, the race within the race (for the Dash 4 Cash) was attainable for Mayer, who was running second to Larson in the closing laps but was ahead of the three cars he needed to beat. A caution with just eight laps remaining changed everything and forced the race to overtime.
After pitting for tires, Mayer chose the bottom lane on the restart, behind Larson. Contact with Larson on the restart altered both cars’ chances of winning. Allgaier took advantage and passed both, ultimately taking the checkered flag and the bonus, while Mayer charged to a second-place finish.
“To finish second is a good day,” said Mayer, who will again be eligible for the Dash 4 Cash bonus next week at Martinsville. “We had an amazing points day, but given the opportunity we had at the end, finishing second is quite the bummer.”
00 – Sheldon Creed
Sheldon Creed will be eligible for the $100,000 Dash 4 Cash bonus on March 29 at Martinsville, thanks to his strong 5th-place finish on Saturday. Creed started 9th at Homestead-Miami Speedway and quickly established himself as one of the stronger cars. Consistently, Creed turned fast laps and raced within the top ten. At the end of Stage One, the Road Ranger/Redcon1 Ford was 8th. As Creed continued to surge, he drove to a third-place finish in Stage Two, earning a combined total of 11 additional stage points.
In Stage Three, Creed continued to be aggressive. Riding the high line at the mile-and-a-half track, he battled Love for a top-5 position. The two swapped the spot during the closing laps. A late-race caution sent the race into overtime and set up a two-lap shootout to the finish. On the restart, Creed again battled Love. Creed gathered momentum on the high side of the banking and was able to beat Love for the fifth spot, securing the final Dash 4 Cash qualifying spot for Martinsville.
“We’re going to keep chipping away at it,” said Creed, who has finished second twice at Martinsville in his Xfinity career. “It’s going to be big for us. To go to Martinsville and have a shot against these four is going to be fun.”
Cup Series
41 – Cole Custer
Cole Custer donned the Autodesk/HaasTooling.com Ford for the first time this season, at a track where he earned his first career NASCAR Xfinity win back in 2017. He grabbed a 28th-place finish in the Cup Series race at Homestead-Miami on Sunday, in the first of two races this year that will see Autodesk adorn the hood of the No. 41 car.
Custer started 24th after a solid qualifying effort on Saturday, and churned out strong laps in the opening stage despite an eventful start. The 41 team worked its way back up as Custer gained eight spots on pit road during the first cycle of pit stops but finished 33rd in the first stage.
Custer once again started picking off drivers as he started the second stage in 30th, and drove his car up to 26th on lap 140. He held on to a 28th-place result to end the second stage, where he ultimately ended up finishing in his first Cup start at Homestead since 2022.
“Overall, it was a very hard fought-day, and there are definitely things to take from it. We’ll keep working in the right direction to try and get us better at the next mile-and-a-half track we go to,” Custer said. “I’m looking forward to Martinsville as it’s a place where we’ve had some solid runs, so really excited for next weekend.”
Up Next:
NASCAR heads to its first short track this season as Martinsville hosts the seventh points race on the NASCAR Cup Series/Xfinity schedule next weekend. Race coverage for the Xfinity series is set for 5 p.m. ET on Saturday on the CW, and Sunday at 3 p.m. ET on FS1 for the Cup Series.
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.
