Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Pocono Media Availability
Wednesday, June 18, 2025
Cole Custer, driver of the No. 41 Haas Factory Team Ford Mustang Dark Horse, is coming off his first top 10 finish of the season after an eighth-place run last weekend in Mexico City. Custer was part of a media Q&A session this afternoon where he talked about that race and what’s coming up next at Pocono Raceway, where he has a pair of NASCAR Xfinity Series wins on his resume.
COLE CUSTER, No. 41 Haas Factory Team Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT MEXICO CITY AND HOW THINGS WENT FOR YOU? “It was great for our team being able to go there and get an eighth-place finish, our first top 10 of the year. We just had a solid car all day and good strategy. I didn’t make any mistakes. The pit crew did well and didn’t make any mistakes, so, overall, it was just a really solid day for us. Hopefully, at the halfway point of the season we’re able to start clicking off some good finishes and moving in the right direction.”
WHAT IS BUILDING A NOTEBOOK LIKE AND WHAT IT TAKES FOR YOU TO KEEP UP WITH EVERYTHING? “Unfortunately, a lot of things that we do in racing is trial by error, so you go out there and try to make a change to the car to see if it’s better or worse. If it’s worse, you don’t do it. If it’s better, you keep working on that. With the limited times that we get to practice and having a practice this past weekend in Mexico definitely helped our team, being able to build our notebook and figure out what we want in our road course cars and what I need in the car. I think from there throughout the year we’ll get better and better, but it can get frustrating because it is pretty much trial by error of trying to figure out what we need to do with the cars. You try to rely on simulation as much as you can to work in the right direction, but there’s nothing like those real life experiences.”
WHERE DO YOU FEEL YOUR TEAM IS AT RIGHT NOW AND HOW MUCH DID MEXICO HELP? “I think at the end of the day the start of the season didn’t go how we started. We wanted to be in a better spot, but I feel like we’ve been starting to bring better cars to the racetrack. The intermediates have definitely been tough on us, so, hopefully, as the year goes we’re able to work better and better and get all of the aero stuff figured out for those tracks because it’s just so important when you go there. I feel like we’re moving in the right direction, it’s just a matter of putting races together. I feel like the road courses, the short tracks, the superspeedways, all of those should be strong suits for our team. I think we’re still working on the intermediate stuff, but I think we’re rolling in the right direction.”
HOW MUCH OF A NOTEBOOK DID YOU GUYS KEEP FROM SHR? DO YOU HAVE ANY OF THOSE OR IS NONE OF THAT APPLICABLE? “We have a lot of notes to look at, I’m not gonna lie on that, it’s just a matter of for what our cars currently are right now and what our team currently is right now, there’s a lot of moving parts. We have different simulation than we had last year and different tools to work with, so there’s a lot of different moving parts that it’s not as simple as just plugging one thing in and hoping it works. We actually found that out at the start of the season, so you really have to tailor it around your team because it’s all new people, all new tools, so we’re really having to work through that stuff and I think we’re starting to get in the flow of things halfway through the year.”
CAN YOU GIVE SOME PERSPECTIVE ON HOW THE NEXT GEN CAR IS DIFFERENT FROM WHEN YOU DROVE IT IN 2022 TO NOW? ARE YOU DOING A LOT OF THINGS DIFFERENTLY NOW? “I think the biggest thing I noticed when I first came back is just how good the cars drive, honestly. That’s kind of a hard thing to say because it’s not like we’re really up there in points, but that first year was so many unknowns. You’d show up at the racetrack and really didn’t know what you were gonna have. If you were gonna hit limiters, or hit road blocks. It was the wild west really at figuring this car out, where now everybody has dialed in these cars so good that it’s just a game of thousandths, literally thousandths of trying to figure out ways to make gains and beat the guy next to you. The field has really gotten a lot tighter. The cars have gotten to drive better, so you really just have to be 100 percent in every single area.”
SO HOW DO YOU BECOME A BETTER DRIVER? “I think the biggest thing is really taking your sim time seriously and using all the notes that you can to rely on and try to make sure you’re prepared for the weekend, and I think working with your team to get what you need in the race car to try to go faster. I think those are the biggest things that you can try to work on as a driver and studying to get better.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT HOW ATLANTA DIFFERS FROM TALLADEGA AND DAYTONA, AND WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT THE UPCOMING ROAD COURSES AFTER SUCH A GOOD RUN IN MEXICO? “I think the first question, going to Atlanta, comparing that to Daytona and Talladega, the biggest thing is just the handling, especially when we go back there for the summer race. It’s just so hot that you really have way more handling involved than you do at Daytona or Talladega. You still have the drafting aspect, but everybody is hanging on for dear life a little bit, so the field gets a little bit more spread out just because you can’t race as tight. You have to worry about the handling, so it’s definitely a different dynamic where you see a little bit of a mix of a mile-and-a-half and superspeedway racing. The second question about going to the road courses, I’m definitely looking forward to those places. I feel like that practice in Mexico did us good as far as figuring out what we want in the cars, and I think having a solid finish definitely gives us some confidence going to the rest of them.”
HOW WAS LAST WEEKEND AS FAR AS THE TRACK AND SETUP, AND WOULD YOU LIKE TO COME BACK TO MEXICO CITY FOR ANOTHER RACE? “I thought the track raced really well. It had some really good passing zones with turn one, turn four, turn 11, turn 12, so it’s a racy track. There’s fall off in the cars. It’s not an easy place to get around. I thought the track was awesome, so I wouldn’t mind going back. It is logistically hard at times. We found that out as a team this week with our flights getting cancelled, but I feel like the second time around everything would be easier. I wouldn’t mind going back.”
WHAT WAS IT LIKE DRIVING THROUGH THE STADIUM? “It was cool. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a setup that was legitimately, I think it used to be a baseball stadium, and now you have a racetrack running through it, so it was pretty awesome. I’ve never been a part of something like that, where it was so tailored around the fans and how they encapsulate the whole area. It was almost like you’re in Bristol but a road course. It was a pretty cool dynamic.”
WAS THERE ANY SENSE OF ADDED PRESSURE BEING THE ONLY TEAM THAT HAS TIES TO SHR? “I think we all put the pressure on ourselves. At this level, we all want to go win. Everybody on our team, there are a lot of people who have won races on our team that expect to go run up front, so I feel like that’s our end goal is to go and compete for wins. We’re putting that pressure on ourselves. We know we need to get better. I think at the end of the day, our guys aren’t gonna stop working until we get there.”
CAN YOU EXPLAIN THE PERSPECTIVE OF SHIFTING FROM XFINITY TO CUP AND HOW YOU GO FROM CHASING A TITLE IN ONE TO BUILDING A NOTEBOOK IN THE OTHER? “It’s definitely a reset. I think of us as a new team, so we have to be smart about how we try and go out there and get solid finishes and try to maximize our days. Sometimes that’s not for a win, but it’s a matter of just how we build our notebook and how we move in the right direction is the biggest thing. You don’t want to be tearing up cars when you’re trying to build a program and trying to get things better. You have to be smart about things, but I think it’s a great challenge for us. I think there’s a lot of people that want to prove some people wrong and we want to go out there and compete with the best of them. I feel like we have the tools to do that, we just have to keep working and get our notebook better and better. Hopefully, in the second half of this season we’re able to hit our stride a little bit.”
HOW ARE THINGS DIFFERENT THIS TIME AROUND COMPARED TO THE LAST TIME YOU WERE IN THE SERIES? “I wouldn’t say the cars drive comfortably, but I would say they drive better. That first year, everything was just so crazy with everybody trying to figure out the car that I think everybody has just really fine-tuned it to now. It’s really just brought the field a lot closer and closer together. For us, expectation-wise, I feel like we want to go out there this second half of the season and try to live in the top 20, live in the top 15, get some top 10 finishes and if you’re able to live in that top 15 or so, you’re gonna compete for wins at some point because the field is so tight. We just have to keep trying to work at that and try to get in that area.”
WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES POCONO PRESENTS FOR A DRIVER WITH THREE DISTINCTLY DIFFERENT TURNS? “Pocono is so tough with three different corners, such long straightaways. You have to have everything working. You have to have good strategy, good pit stops, a great car that can work in all three corners. The driver has to be on their game because it’s a tough place to get around with how fast it is and how flat it is, so you just have to really be 100 percent in every single area. I feel like we’re working in the right direction, so hopefully we can have a solid weekend.”
WHEN YOU FIRST WENT TO POCONO AS A YOUNG DRIVER HOW CHALLENGING WAS IT AND WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED THROUGH THE YEARS THERE? “I remember going there the first time and trying to go through the tunnel turn and I was scared to death. It can be such a hard place to get comfortable at because it is so fast and at the same time you’re going into a corner at 180-190 and it looks dead flat when you’re going into it, and there are big bumps in the center of turn two, so there’s just a lot of things you have to get comfortable with there. I feel like it’s been a solid place for me. I’ve won a couple Xfinity races there and an ARCA race, but I feel like it’s always a place that challenges you that you can always do better. You don’t ever feel like you leave that place and did an absolutely perfect job because it’s so hard to really hit perfect laps around that place every single time.”
HOW DO YOU WALK INTO IT THIS TIME THEN? “I think I understand it, it’s just a matter of getting comfortable with it, especially since I haven’t driven a Next Gen car there in a year or two. Just being able to go there and be really aggressive through turn two and everywhere you need to go, it takes a lot of commitment, so I think for me in practice just getting used to how far I can get into the corner and how much I can get away with.”
