Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Xfinity Series
Food City 300 | Bristol Motor Speedway
Friday, September 20, 2024
COLE CUSTER WINS NASCAR XFINITY SERIES REGULAR SEASON CHAMPIONSHIP WITH BRISTOL VICTORY
- Cole Custer won the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship with his win tonight at Bristol Motor Speedway.
- Custer’s victory is his second of the season to go with his triumph earlier this year at Pocono Raceway.
- The win is Custer’s 15th series victory with Ford, which puts him in sole possession of sixth place on the manufacturer’s all-time list.
COLE CUSTER, No. 00 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse – VICTORY LANE INTERVIEWS
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN TO THE TEAM? “Man, it’s just unbelievable. It’s a testament to these guys. It’s been a really hard month, but everyone at the shop really kept their heads in it. I can’t thank High Point enough. It’s awesome to get them a win. Ford Performance. All the guys did such a great job. It was an unbelievable car all night. I’m ready to get to the playoffs.”
YOU ARE THE REGULAR SEASON CHAMPION. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? “It’s huge to get this momentum because our confidence was going down there this last month, so to get this win really means a lot.”
“Man, what a car. What a race. I mean, these guys did such a great job with this thing. I can’t thank HighPoint.com enough. Every race we’ve wanted to do better with them and this was finally a race we put it all together. It was just an unbelievable car. I could really drive through the field and do everything I needed. It’s a real testament to this team of what we can bring to the playoffs.”
YOU STARTED IN THE WALL ON LAP 3. YOU WERE ON YOUR LAST SET OF TIRES FOR 140 LAPS AND END UP IN VICTORY LANE WITH THE REGULAR SEASON TITLE. HOW ABOUT THAT? “It’s unbelievable. These guys never give up. It’s been a tough month, but to be able to lead into the playoffs like this, we’re gonna really bring it to them.”
Ford Finishing Results:
1st – Cole Custer
8th – Ryan Sieg
13th – Riley Herbst
22nd – Blaine Perkins
23rd – Kyle Sieg
27th – Logan Bearden
32nd – Chad Finchum
34th – Matt DiBenedetto
36th – Garrett Smithley
RILEY HERBST, No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON TONIGHT? “I guess it’s good for our team with Cole being in Victory Lane. That was cool to see. It’s good for us, but we just missed it. I don’t know. We weren’t good in practice and didn’t qualify well, and then we didn’t have much pace in the race, either.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL YOUR TEAM IS SET UP FOR THE PLAYOFFS? “I feel like when we execute we’re one of the fastest teams for sure, but tonight wasn’t one of those nights. We’ll have to figure out why and what I need better, but we’ll go to work.”
WHAT ABOUT STARTING THE PLAYOFFS AT KANSAS? “I think we’ll be really competitive. I’m excited for it and hopefully we can step up to the plate.”
RYAN SIEG, No. 39 Sci Aps Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT DO YOU LOOK BACK ON THIS YEAR? “Probably the hard ones. You go back to Texas, but there was a few races where we let some points slip. All in all, it was a great year, nothing to hang our heads on. We still have some races to go win. That’s the goal and that was our goal this year. We’ve had shots to do it, we’ve just got to execute everything. We’ve worked hard all year, so nothing to hang our heads on. We’ve had a fast Sci Ops Ford Mustang each week, just sometimes we didn’t capitalize on the points and other times I messed up, but, all in all, we come out of here with a top 10 and we just have to continue that momentum and try to win some races here at the end and continue this momentum we’ve got going for next year.”
WHAT NEEDS TO IMPROVE FOR NEXT YEAR? “We’ve got some things in the works. We should improve next year. We have most of our same group next year, and then we’ll add a few more. The next step is probably trying to focus more on all the little things on our car. That’s probably where we’re getting beat a little bit, just the little things we’ve got to clean up and we should be able to run with them if we can execute everything and contend for races week in and week out. We’ve just got to keep digging.”
