Cole Custer lastly closed the deal on Saturday, successful his first race of the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Sequence season at Pocono Raceway.
The defending Xfinity Sequence champion broke an 18-race winless streak courting again to the 2023 championship race. The win additionally marks the primary for Ford within the Xfinity Sequence in 2024.
After taking the lead away from Justin Allgaier with 9 laps to go, a warning for Shane van Gisbergen re-racked the sphere for one last restart with 4 laps to go. Whereas Allgaier obtained an important push from William Byron into flip one, it was Custer who obtained the run off the nook, build up sufficient momentum for the No. 00 automobile to clear Allgaier.
With Allgaier below strain from Byron for second, Custer simply pulled away for a win that formally locks himself into the playoffs.
Allgaier and Byron completed second and third, respectively, with polesitter Sheldon Creed ending fourth and Taylor Grey rounding out the highest 5.
AJ Allmendinger and Austin Hill completed sixth and seventh, respectively, with Parker Kligerman, Sammy Smith and Sam Mayer rounding out the top-10 finishers.
One identify that will not be seen close to the highest of the outcomes sheet is van Gisbergen, who ran as excessive as tenth earlier than contact with Mayer despatched the Chicago winner spinning. With little time to achieve again spots on the following restart, van Gisbergen was relegated to a Thirty first-place end.
Different notable finishers from Saturday’s race embrace Riley Herbst in eleventh, Brandon Jones in thirteenth, Chandler Smith in fifteenth, Corey Heim in sixteenth and Josh Berry in twenty seventh.
After Pocono, Custer maintains his regular-season level lead, main Allgaier by 51 factors. Custer’s win makes him the seventh driver to clinch a playoff spot through a win to this point in 2024. 5 playoff spots nonetheless stay open with seven regular-season races remaining.
Smith presently holds the ultimate playoff spot by 22 factors over Ryan Sieg.
The Xfinity Sequence’ subsequent race will likely be subsequent Saturday on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the place the collection will tackle the IMS oval for the primary time since 2019. Kyle Busch received on the monitor the final time the Xfinity Sequence raced there.
The Pennzoil 250 will go inexperienced shortly after 3:30 p.m. ET on July 20, with protection offered on USA Community, IMS Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
