Cole Custer has been plenty fast this season in NASCAR XFINITY Series qualifying. Before he earned the pole three months ago at Bristol, Custer had never won one in the sport’s second-tier division.
Now? He’s got four of them.
Custer earned the top spot for Friday night’s (July 13) ALSCO 300 at Kentucky Speedway. He just edged Justin Allgaier and dominant XFINITY part-timer Kyle Busch to earn his series-best fourth pole of 2018.
Busch was in the running to earn it himself after posting the fastest speed in the second round of qualifying. But Busch was hurt by a spinning Christopher Bell. The red flag came out for Bell’s wreck, aborting Busch’s qualifying run and briefly disrupting his rhythm. He’d qualify third.
Austin Cindric qualified in the fourth position, his best start since Chicagoland and a nice recovery after his Daytona barrel roll. Daniel Hemric quietly rounded out the top five.
The only issue in the session came when Bell spun exiting Turn 4 in the final round. He was able to keep it off the wall and not sustain any damage beyond flat spotting his tires. However, that would be enough to send the No. 20 Toyota to the rear for the start of tonight’s race.
There were only three minutes and 35 seconds remaining in the final session when Bell spun. But that threw off many of the qualifiers, including Busch and tilted the momentum back Custer’s way.
With only 40 cars entered, no one failed to qualify. Josh Reaume will start shotgun on the field as the last car in on speed.
ALSCO 300 STARTING LINEUP
The ALSCO 300 is slated to go live on NBCSN at 8 p.m. ET. All eyes will be on Custer as he seeks his first XFINITY victory of 2018 over Custer and Kyle Busch.
His favorite tracks on the circuit include Barber Motorsports Park, Iowa Speedway, Martinsville Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway, Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville, and Bristol Motor Speedway.
During the season, Christian also spends time as a photographer with multiple other outlets shooting Monster Energy AMA Supercross, Minor League & Major League Baseball, and NCAA Football.