FONTANA, Calif. — Three overtime restarts and a 23 minute red flag period weren’t enough to keep Cole Custer from winning Saturday’s Xfinity Series race at Auto Club Speedway.
Custer, driving the No. 07 Ford owned by SS Green Light Racing, took the checkered flag over Noah Gragson with the sun setting on the two-mile track.
The top five was completed by Trevor Bayne, Josh Berry and Anthony Alfredo.
Custer led 80 of 165 laps (15 more than the scheduled 150). He took the lead for the final time with five laps to go, right when a caution for a two-car incident came out and forced the overtime period.
“Man, it was just an awesome car,” Custer told Fox Sports 1. “That thing was just a rocketship all day. I can’t thank Bobby Dotter enough. Everybody that’s involved on this car, it was just unreal how fast we were. … It’s awesome to win at home. Can’t wait for tomorrow.”
It’s Custer’s second Xfinity win at Auto Club Speedway after he won the 2019 edition of the race.
Custer’s victory is the first NASCAR Xfinity Series win for team owner Barry Dotter in 321 starts since 1995. SS Green Light Racing has a technical alliance with Stewart-Haas Racing, who Custer competes for in the Cup Series.
“Bobby is obviously a racer through and through and has been doing it a really long time,” Custer said. “To get him in victory lane was awesome. He is the greatest guy to see around the garage and he was stoked in victory lane. It is really cool to have that all work out.”
On the first overtime attempt, Brandon Jones’ No. 19 Toyota spun in turn one after being tagged by Daniel Hemric.
Jones was part of the the caution on the second overtime attempt, as well. As the leaders came down the frontstretch to take the white flag, Jones spun to avoid an incident in front him. His car slid into sand barrels located at the end of the pit wall, resulting in an explosion of sand and a lengthy clean up.
“I saw it coming,” Jones said. “I never have hit the sand before. A ton of impact there, and I really didn’t feel much of anything, which is surprising, so good job by those guys.”
AJ Allmendinger, who started from the pole, led the first 14 laps of the race.
On lap three, Daytona winner Austin Hill suffered significant damage to the right side of his No. 21 when an aggressive push from Berry on the frontstretch turned him into the wall. Hill was able to continue after repairs were made to his car. He finished 27th.
The first caution of the race occurred on lap seven when a fire broke out under the hood of Landon Cassill’s No. 10 Chevrolet.
On the ensuing restart, Allmendinger lost the lead to Joe Gibbs Racing’s Bayne.
For Bayne, making his first of seven scheduled starts with JGR, it was his first laps led in NASCAR competition since the summer 2017 Cup race at Daytona International Speedway.
Bayne led until the end of stage one on lap 35, holding off charges from Custer to take the green and white checkered flag.
Under the stage break caution, Bayne lost the lead to Daniel Hemric after a slow pit stop. Bayne restarted 10th.
On the restart, Hemric and Ty Gibbs battled for the lead. Exiting turn 4, a bad attempt by Gibbs to sidedraft off Hemric’s inside resulted in contact and sent Gibbs sliding into the frontstretch grass and creating another caution.
Custer took the lead for the first time on the ensuing restart. He’d hold the position until the fifth caution flag waved on lap 55 for a spin by Jones in turn four. Custer went on to win the stage over Justin Allgaier.