Chandler Smith Swings at Cole Custer, Misses Championship 4

RIDGEWAY, Va. — Chandler Smith literally went down swinging on Saturday evening (Nov. 2).

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver had to win the National Debt Relief 250 at Martinsville Speedway, the last race of the NASCAR Xfinity Series Round of 8, in order to make the Championship 4. But he felt two spots short in third and won’t be racing for a championship at Phoenix Raceway.

Smith may have had a shot at getting to eventual winner Aric Almirola. But on a late restart, Cole Custer got into the back of the Kaulig Racing driver’s No. 81 and sent him up the racetrack. The duo had raced each other aggressively prior to the contact as well as after, with Smith moving Custer out the way for the spot just prior to the caution that preceded his ill-fated restart.

“He thought he was in a must-win for the owners — which he was,” Smith said. “… I get that his dad [Joe Custer] has some high-up role at SHR [Stewart-Haas Racing], so he probably values that a lot. But at the end of the day, I’m a driver. I’m in a must-win situation. He was not at that moment, and he didn’t even try to make the corner.

“Granted, I moved him the lap before. But I’m beating his bumper off for the five laps before that. I gave him grace before I finally shipped him and then he doesn’t even try to give me a chance going into turn 1.”

After the race was over, Smith walked over to Custer’s No. 00 car on pit road. The pair had a brief, heated exchange, leading to Smith swinging at Custer’s head. Both crews quickly jumped in and separated the drivers before things escalated further.

“I guess he’s mad, but what comes around goes around,” Custer said of the contact. “At the end of the day, he put us in the fence a few times this year. He used his bumper on me, so I used my bumper on him. 

“It is what it is. You go and race for a championship, and you’re put in these situations. I don’t mind doing it to him because he’s done it to me.”

This wasn’t the duo’s first run-in. Smith and Custer also had words on pit road at Kansas Speedway in September, after Smith cut off the No. 00 while completing a pass.

“He kept us from winning a race, I feel like, at Kansas,” Custer said. “He used the bumper on me, so I used the bumper on him. I don’t know how we’re not even, and then he punches me in the face. I can’t even tell if he really punched me in the face. It was so soft.”

Smith admitted he’d wronged Custer before, but thought there was respect between the two prior to Saturday.

“We’ve raced with a tremendous amount of respect,” Smith said. “Granted, I have done him dirty a few times this year, and I owned up to it, reached out to him, apologized, made amends and all that.”

Smith believed the whole reason Custer chose to line up behind him for the restart was so he could knock him out of the way.

“I thought it was a little bit of a chicken-shit move, honestly,” he said.

Custer easily advanced to the Championship 4 on points with a fourth-place finish right behind Smith, but he had reason to drive aggressively in search of a win. The defending series champion was also competing for a spot in the Championship 4 in the owner’s playoffs. Almirola’s win bumped the No. 00 out of that championship battle.

So heading into Phoenix, Custer has the shot to repeat as champion in the drivers standings. On the flip side, now knocked out of the title hunt, Smith will be driving in his last guaranteed race for now with a shot to get one last checkered flag on the year. He has no deal for next year yet and wants to impress.

It remains to be seen if the two drivers’ objectives will lead to another clash in the season finale.