Ford Performance Results:
4th – Cole Custer
11th – Riley Herbst
15th – Ryan Sieg
16th – Matt DiBenedetto
19th – Blaine Perkins
20th – Dylan Lupton
21st – Kyle Sieg
22nd – Mason Maggio
26th – Greg Van Alst
COLE CUSTER ADVANCES TO CHAMPIONSHIP 4
- Cole Custer’s fourth-place finish enabled him to qualify for the Championship 4 next week at Phoenix.
- Custer will be going for his second straight series championship and can become the ninth driver to win multiple series titles.
- Custer could also become the second Ford driver to win back-to-back championships, joining Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (2011-12).
COLE CUSTER, No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT WAS THE CONVERSATION WITH CHANDLER? “I guess he’s mad, but what comes around goes around. 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.”
HOW AGGRESSIVE DID YOU EXPECT HIM TO BE? “I expected him to be aggressive, but I can’t not be aggressive. I’m gonna race him just how he raced me the whole year.”
WHAT DID YOU TELL HIM? “I was racing for the owner’s. I was in a must-win just like him, so for him to come over here and say I don’t have a reason to race, that’s no reason at all.”
WITH YOU PAST HISTORY ARE YOU SURPRISED THAT HE WAS SHOCKED YOU RACED HIM THAT WAY? “No. I mean, it is what it is. You’re racing to go race for a championship. He put me in the wall a few times this year, this was the time it all came around.”
WHAT ABOUT YOUR TEAM AND HOW THEY PERFORMED? “I’m so proud of this team. We brought everything we had today. They kept us in the fight, but JT and all the guys did a great job all year maximizing everything we had. I can’t thank Gene Haas and everybody at Haas Automation, Ford Performance. I can’t wait to go to Phoenix now and see what we can do.”
ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT CHANDLER LOOKING FOR RETRIBUTION NEXT WEEKEND AT PHOENIX? “It is what it is. I think at the end of the day he put us in the wall a few times this year. He kept us from winning a race, I feel like, at Kansas. 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, but we’ll go on to Phoenix.”
YOUR THOUGHTS ON PHOENIX NEXT WEEK? “At the end of the day, I feel like we have as good a shot as anybody. We’ve brought a lot a speed in the playoffs so far. We obviously won last year, so we just have to work some magic again.”
WHAT HAPPENED EARLY ON IN THE RACE WITH AJ ALLMENDINGER? “At the end of the day, with AJ I was in a situation where I had to beat everybody else on points and he was locked in. I got aggressive with him. I’m not gonna lie. I think he overreacted and started brake checking me and then he popped his tire, but, at the end of the day, I had to go and he didn’t have to go, so I had to do what I had to do.”
YOU WERE IN THE MIDDLE OF A LOT OF STUFF TODAY. THAT’S JUST THE NATURE OF THIS BEING A CUTOFF RACE TO GET TO THE CHAMPIONSHIP 4, RIGHT? “Yeah. I mean, you just have to be aggressive. You have to fight for every point and you have to race how you get raced. That’s just how it is.”
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