Race Weekend Central

Cole Custer Wins Pocono Green 250 Pole

Stewart-Haas Racing’s Cole Custer won the pole Saturday morning (June 2) for the Pocono Green 250 Recycled by J.P. Mascaro & Sons with a lap at 161.423 mph.  The run gives Custer his third pole of 2018.

The new rules package in effect for this weekend has dramatically slowed speeds.  Custer’s pole time is 3.75 seconds slower than pole winner Kyle Benjamin‘s fastest lap from last year.

Custer’s lap was three-hundredths of a second faster than Kaulig Racing’s Ryan Truex.  Team Penske’s Austin Cindric will start third in his Fitzgerald Glider Kits Ford, followed by Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch.  JGR teammate Christopher Bell rounded out the top five.

Brandon Jones will start sixth, just in front of points leader Elliott Sadler.  John Hunter Nemechek will start eighth, followed by Tyler Reddick and Chase Elliott.  Daniel Hemric and Ross Chastain complete the group of drivers that qualified for the final round.

In the first round, Cindric was fastest with a lap of 160.645 mph, the only driver to top 160 mph in the opening round.  Cindric’s lap was nearly a quarter of a second faster than Bell in second, followed by Custer.  Truex and Jones were fourth and fifth, respectively.

76-year-old Morgan Shepherd is the only driver that failed to qualify.

XFINITY SERIES POCONO GREEN 250 RECYCLED BY J.P. MASCARO & SONS STARTING GRID

Coverage of the Pocono Green 250 Recycled by J.P. Mascaro & Sons starts with NASCAR RaceDay – XFINITY Edition at 12:30 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1.  The race is scheduled to go green at 1:15 p.m.

About the author

Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.

Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.

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