COLE CUSTER, No. 00 Thompson Pipe/Haas CNC Ford Mustang (Finished 1st)
VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW — THIS IS YOUR THIRD CAREER XFINITY WIN, BUT THIS ONE RIGHT DOWN THE ROAD FROM WHERE YOU GREW UP: “This means to ton. To win here, at home in Southern California – I grew up racing in San Bernardino and Irwindale. It means a ton. To come back here. I can’t thank the Thompson Pipe group enough. I wouldn’t be racing without what their family did for me. Haas Automation is a local company also. It was such a huge race for us. Everybody, it is a home town race for our whole team. I am pretty pumped up.”
YOU HELD OF KYLE BUSCH AND THERE AT THE END, TELL US ABOUT THE MOVE THAT TOOK THE LEAD AND WHAT YOU HAD TO DO TO KEEP KYLE BEHIND YOU? “Kyle Busch is one of the legends of our sport. To keep him one race more from getting 200 means a lot. I am sure he is probably a little frustrated but we have a great time racing him and hopefully we do it more in the future.”
WHAT WAS THE DIFFERENCE AT THE END? “For us it was clean air and having good restarts really. We had a pretty good Mustang all day, it was just a matter of getting out front. We got our car to turn better and that was kind of the difference.”
THE LAST TWO YEARS YOU WON IN RACE 35 AND RACE 33. WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR YOU TO HAVE A WIN THIS EARLY IN THE SEASON? “It feels weird honestly. We always save it for the very end of the season. I am pretty pumped up. I think it will be a little more relaxing and now we can focus on winning the rest of the year and probably build up some stage points and playoff points also. I am pretty pumped for that.”
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 22 America’s Tire/Discount Tire Ford Mustang (Finished 6th)
“If you look at the numbers on stages and finishes it seems like we had a pretty quiet day. We didn’t really have the practices or qualifying we wanted. I had a lot of long run speed to begin the race in the short stages. Restored to running the wall which is something I am not the best at and I learned a lot on how to do it today. I am proud of that effort. We made our car better throughout the day and got into top-five position then had the blown rear tire and had to come back from that and recovered to finish sixth. We were sniffing a top-five at the end. I will take it. Days like this are hard to come by when you make a couple mistakes and learn a lot of things and we were able to rebound with stage points and a good finish. I will take it and move on to Texas.”
CHASE BRISCOE, No. 98 Nutri Chomps/C-A-L Ranch Ford Mustang (Finished 5th)
“We kind of struggled at the beginning. That has been our mantra this year. As the race goes on we get better and better. I don’t’ know if we were that good at the end. I kind of screwed myself getting onto pit road and cost ourselves four spots. We had to restart ninth and got back to fourth. We were way too tight at the end. I wish that run before could have gone to the end. I feel like we could have been third or maybe second. Overall not a bad day. I think as we continue to go on we get better and better as we learn each other. It was a pretty good day for the Ford Mustangs and Stewart-Haas Racing and we will go on to the next one and see what we can do.”
Campbell Marketing & Communications for Ford Performance
