Cole Custer Left Wanting More After Top-3 Finish at Bristol

Cole Custer‘s Alsco 300 started well but wound up finishing a bit sour.

The driver of the No. 00 Ford Mustang led 25 laps and ultimately finished third behind eventual winner Christopher Bell and second-place Tyler Reddick. The Ladera Ranch, California native’s afternoon was up and down, to say the least.

“We just got that damage early and then had to come from the back,” he said. “We just didn’t really have the fire off speed or the perfect scenarios to pass people when we got up in the top five to really get track position. It was impossible to pass, really. I don’t know.

“I’m pretty mad because I think we had the best car there at the end, we just didn’t have the best fire off. I know we’ve got to get a little bit better.”

At the end of the race, Custer was clearly one of, if not the quickest car on track. But before passing the leader, he had to pass second-place. He tapped the No. 2’s bumper multiple times but wasn’t able to complete the pass.

Extremely frustrated with our race today even though we finished 3rd. Felt like we had the fastest car at the end just didn’t have the short run speed. We’ll learn from it and come back better… pic.twitter.com/7fEZrJ2x1D

— Cole Custer (@ColeCuster) April 6, 2019

“Yeah, you just need the perfect scenario to pass somebody,” he said. “You have to have the perfect run to get next to him and then you have to have no lappers on the inside. There are tons of lappers, so it’s almost impossible to get that perfect scenario to pass someone. We just couldn’t get it to happen. I think we had the best car there at the end, it’s just a matter of having the track position.”

Custer finished 32nd and 10th at Bristol last season, so a top-five run is a welcomed improvement for the Stewart-Haas Racing bunch.

Custer and company will look to do two spots better next weekend at Richmond Raceway.