Cole Custer left Mexico City on Monday morning with his first top-10 of the 2025 season. Custer drove the HAAS Factory Team No. 41 Mustang Dark Horse to an 8th place finish.
“It was great for our team being able to go there and get an eighth-place finish, our first top 10 of the year. We just had a solid car all day and good strategy. I didn’t make any mistakes. The pit crew did well and didn’t make any mistakes, so, overall, it was just a really solid day for us,” said Custer.
The 2025 season is Custer’s first in the series since departing in 2022, for a return to the Xfinity Series. Custer currently finds himself 34th in series standings, heading into the 17th race of the season.
“I think at the end of the day the start of the season didn’t go how we started. We wanted to be in a better spot, but I feel like we’ve been starting to bring better cars to the racetrack. The intermediates have definitely been tough on us, so, hopefully, as the year goes we’re able to work better and better and get all of the aero stuff figured out for those tracks because it’s just so important when you go there. I feel like we’re moving in the right direction, it’s just a matter of putting races together,” said Custer to the media on Wednesday.
Custer was behind the wheel of Stewart Haas Racing’s No. 00 in the Cup Series in 2022, before returning to the Xfinity Series. Custer says the Next Gen car has changed since it’s inception.
““I wouldn’t say the cars drive comfortably, but I would say they drive better. That first year, everything was just so crazy with everybody trying to figure out the car that I think everybody has just really fine-tuned it to now. It’s really just brought the field a lot closer and closer together. For us, expectation-wise, I feel like we want to go out there this second half of the season and try to live in the top 20, live in the top 15, get some top 10 finishes and if you’re able to live in that top 15 or so, you’re gonna compete for wins at some point because the field is so tight.”
Custer and the No. 41 team head to the Pocono mountains for this weekend’s Great American Getaway 400 at Pocono Raceway. The tricky triangle has been a good track for Custer over the years, but still a challenge.
“I remember going there the first time and trying to go through the tunnel turn and I was scared to death. It can be such a hard place to get comfortable at because it is so fast and at the same time you’re going into a corner at 180-190 and it looks dead flat when you’re going into it, and there are big bumps in the center of turn two, so there’s just a lot of things you have to get comfortable with there. I feel like it’s been a solid place for me. I’ve won a couple Xfinity races there and an ARCA race, but I feel like it’s always a place that challenges you that you can always do better. You don’t ever feel like you leave that place and did an absolutely perfect job because it’s so hard to really hit perfect laps around that place every single time.”
Tune into coverage of The Great American Getaway 400 at Pocono Raceway on Sunday beginning at 12pm on Owensboro’s Home for NASCAR, WVJS.
