STEWART-HAAS RACING
NASCAR Xfinity Series: Drive for the Cure 250 Presented by BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina
Date: Oct. 7, 2023
Event: Drive for the Cure 250 presented by BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina (Round 29 of 33)
Series: NASCAR Xfinity Series
Location: Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway Roval (2.28-mile, 17-turn road course)
Format: 67 laps, broken into three stages (20 laps/20 laps/27 laps)
Race Winner: Sam Mayer of JR Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Winner: Justin Allgaier of JR Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 2 Winner: John Hunter Nemechek of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)
SHR Race Finish:
● Cole Custer (Started 7th / Finished 2nd, Running, completed 67 of 67 laps)
● Riley Herbst (Started 9th / Finished 4th, Running, completed 67 of 67 laps)
SHR Points:
● Cole Custer (5th with 3,018 points, Advanced to the Round of 8)
● Riley Herbst (12th with 739 points)
SHR Notes:
● Custer earned his 12th top-five of the season and his first top-five in three career NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at the Charlotte Roval.
● Custer has never finished outside the top-10 at the Roval in his Xfinity Series career.
● This was Custer’s third straight top-10 at Charlotte. He finished eighth in his last Xfinity Series career start at the track in September 2019.
● This was Custer’s third straight top-10. He finished fourth Sept. 15 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway and sixth Sept. 23 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.
● Custer’s second-place finish bettered his previous best finish at the Charlotte Roval– seventh, earned in his first start at the track in September 2018.
● Custer led once for four laps to increase his laps-led total on the Charlotte Roval to 9.
● Herbst earned his sixth top-five of the season and his first top-five in four career Xfinity Series starts at the Charlotte Roval.
● Herbst’s fourth-place finish bettered his previous best finish at Charlotte– 12th, earned in his first start at the track in October 2020.
Race Notes:
● Sam Mayer won the Drive for the Cure 250 presented by BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina to score his third career Xfinity Series victory, his third of the season, and his first at Charlotte. His margin over second-place Cole Custer was .909 of a second.
● There were four caution periods for a total of 12 laps.
● Thirty-three of the 38 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
Sound Bites:
“Man, second-place is always hard. We just really struggled on the short runs, for sure. It’s frustrating as a driver when you’re so close to a win like that. There are definitely things that I’m going to replay in my head from those last laps. I could have done something different, but our No. 00 Haas Automation team did a great job all day. JT (Jonathan Toney, crew chief) and all of the guys got the car better with each pit stop to where we could compete for the win. We just needed a little bit more. I think we’ll surprise people with just how good we’ll be in this Round of 8 though. Excited to head to Vegas.” – Cole Custer, driver of the No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang
“I’m proud of the No. 98 Monster Energy team and Stewart-Haas Racing as an organization today. Both of our cars did really well and had a ton of speed. I think overall, my Ford Mustang handled really well and this was probably one of the best cars that I’ve had at the Roval. We had a car that could run up front and contend for the win. It’s exciting to get back on track and have such a strong finish at a track that I’ve struggled at in the past though.” – Riley Herbst, driver of the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang
Next Up:
The next event on the Xfinity Series schedule is the Alsco Uniforms 302 on Saturday, Oct. 14 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It is the fourth race of the Xfinity Series playoffs and the first race of the Round of 8. The race begins at 3:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by USA and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
