Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Xfinity Series
Ambetter Health 302 Advance | Friday, October 18, 2024
COLE CUSTER, No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang Dark Horse – DO YOU FEEL SHR STILL HAS THE KIND OF POWER RILEY HAD LAST YEAR? “I think so, for sure. I mean, Riley had speed here in the spring and we finished second here in the spring. To win by I think 14 seconds or whatever he won by, that’ll be tough, but I feel like this should be a really solid track for us. We have a great notebook here and I think we should be able to hopefully have a good points day.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL THIS ROUND SETS UP FOR YOU AND YOUR TEAM? “I think great. I think the mile-and-a-halves have been really solid for us this year, so we’re looking forward to it. I think Vegas and Homestead are really good tracks for us. Martinsville has been at times a good track for us, and you never know at that place with how it gets at the end of that race. At the end of the day, we just need to go out here and have some solid days and I think we’ll be where we need to be.”
HOW EXCITED ARE YOU ABOUT GOING TO NXT ON TUESDAY? “That’ll be pretty cool. I’m not positive what the plan is yet, so we’ll see if I’m gonna have to learn some wrestling moves or what I’m gonna have to do, but it’s been really cool working with CW and NXT, and having the wrestlers at the racetrack at Kansas, so it’s been cool working with them.”
IS THERE ANY DIFFERENCE FOR YOU ON WHO THE OTHER DRIVERS IN THE ROUND OF 8 ARE? SOME MADE IT THAT WEREN’T EXPECTED TO AND VICE VERSA. “It doesn’t change things too much, really. You just go about your business and maximize your day as much as you can, so I wouldn’t say it really changes us very much, but at the end of the day there are really eight competitive teams that are going for four spots. It’s gonna be tough no matter what. This round is always tough with how competitive the teams are in it, so it’s very easy to get too much this round and make a mistake, and you just have to make sure you maximize your day and don’t put yourself in that situation where you’re in a must-win.”
WHAT HAS SURPRISED YOU ABOUT FATHERHOOD? “I don’t know. I mean I feel like obviously the sleep is tough, so you have to figure all that out. It’s just non-stop. I mean, you always have something to do it seems like, and I think you just get more and more of a rhythm with it. My wife, Kari, has done a great job adapting to it. Unfortunately, she’s not here this weekend because it’s hard to travel this far, but it’s hard because you’re not there with them all the time. I think just really shows how great of a job my wife does taking care of him. It’s been really great so far.”
WHAT’S THE LATEST BABY STORY YOU’RE TELLING EVERYBODY? “Taking him to Charlotte was really cool. We got to go to the Roval. One thing that’s been tough is our dog ate a part of his baby bottle, so she had to have surgery to get that taken out, so that was interesting. It’s been great so far.”
WHAT DID WINNING THE CHAMPIONSHIP LAST YEAR MEAN FOR YOU? “It was huge. I think just having that on your resume can quiet a lot of people about what you can do behind the wheel. A lot of people can’t say that they’re a NASCAR champion, so it’s a huge deal for me and I think there’s no reason why we can’t go back-to-back here and have a shot at it.”
WHAT WOULD A SECOND CHAMPIONSHIP MEAN? “I think it would just be another statement, but I think at the end of the day you just don’t get many chances to win championships, so to have two years where you can go win championships and hopefully go back-to-back, that’s a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing so you have to give it everything you’ve got. I think all of our guys have earned it. I think everybody at SHR who has been a part of this deal, I mean everybody in that shop on the Cup side and the Xfinity side has touched this thing, so to win would mean a ton this year with everything that’s going on.”
HAS THE MUSTACHE BEEN GOOD LUCK SO FAR IN THE PLAYOFFS AND HOW LONG WILL YOU KEEP IT? “It hasn’t been bad. We went to Bristol and we won, so then I had to keep it from there so Bristol was good and it was solid through the first round, so hopefully we can just keep riding it out.”
DOES YOUR WIFE LIKE IT? “Yeah, she wanted me to do it surprisingly, so it’s been good.”
HAVE YOU TAKEN ANY STEPS LIKE GOING IN THE SIM TO GET READY FOR CUP NEXT YEAR OR IS IT ALL EYES ON THE XFINITY CHAMPIONSHIP? “There’s definitely been little things to try and get ahead on, talking with my crew chief for next year, Aaron, on how to go about things and how our processes are gonna be and different things that I like in the car and don’t. I think that’s been a little bit, but at the end of the day we are just super focused on this year and trying to finish it out strong. That will come in the offseason. It will be a really busy offseason to put all that together how we need to, but I think right now we’re just focused on this championship.”
DO YOU HAVE A POINTS NUMBER IN MIND THAT YOU’LL AIM FOR EACH WEEKEND IF YOU DON’T WIN? Not really. I mean, I think you maybe start overthinking it a little bit too much at that point, just because you’re gonna go out there and maximize whatever you’re gonna maximize, so having a point number that you’re trying to hit, that’s a little bit tough. You just try and maximize what you can and don’t put yourself in any really bad spots and your speed is gonna end up wherever it is and you’re gonna end up where you end up. You don’t get desperate until you get to Martinsville and kind of sort it out from there.”
WHAT IS THE FEELING LIKE KNOWING THAT YOU HAVE ANOTHER CHANCE TO BEING IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP 4 AGAIN? “It feels like it’s almost tougher because everybody expects us to be the champions and expects us to be there, but at the end of the day I feel like there are eight really solid teams out here. It’s gonna be a tough round and we just have to maximize our days and take them one step at a time and see where that gets us, but it’s not gonna be easy. I don’t think it was easy last year for us, so it’s kind of similar in both years.”
YOU ARE THE ONLY SHR CAR STILL IN CONTENTION FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP. HOW MUCH HELP ARE YOU GETTING FROM THE ENTIRE ORGANIZATION NOW WITH ONLY FOUR RACES LEFT? “I think it’s all similar. I think everybody has put a lot into our program, so I think going for this championship and being SHR’s last year it means a ton for us to have a shot at this thing. I think everybody is gonna give it everything we’ve got and there’s no reason why we can’t go out there and compete for it. It would definitely mean a lot for this whole building.”
HOW MUCH OF A JERK DO YOU HAVE TO BE IN THIS ROUND ON THE TRACK? “That’s the thing, I think some people think about it that way in that you have to be more aggressive and more of a jerk, but I think at the end of the day you just have to go out there and maximize what you’ve got. I think you put yourself in those situations where you try and be aggressive you’re giving yourself a 25 percent chance of wrecking probably, so at the end of the day you just try and go out there and maximize your day – cross the t’s and dot the i’s and from there your speed is gonna end up wherever it ends up. If you don’t have what you need, it’s gonna be what it’s gonna be and hopefully it’s better the next week, but you digging yourself a hole trying to be aggressive and then wrecking for one spot, that’s how you put yourself in a must-win situation, in my opinion.”
WHAT KIND OF DOG IS HONEY? “She’s a Portuguese Water Dog, kind of like part of the Doodle family a little bit. She’s all good. She’s recovering, but we had a little bit of a scare there.”
WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN? “A week and a half ago, right before Charlotte.”
IT WAS PART OF THE BABY BOTTLE? “Yeah, it was like this part of the bottle that goes into the center of the bottle. It’s hard to explain, but it’s this piece of rubber and it was too big for it to be in there, so we had to get it taken out.”
