NASCAR rookie Cole Custer wins first race after wild closing laps at Kentucky Speedway

First-year Cup Series driver Cole Custer made a four-wide pass for the lead and win.

Late in the NASCAR Cup Series race Sunday at Kentucky Speedway, Kevin Harvick was out front and looked like he was about to cruise to his fifth win of his dominant 2020 season.

Instead, Harvick’s rookie teammate, 22-year-old Cole Custer, stole the checkered flag with a wild finish and crazy upset at the 1.5-mile track. It’s the first victory of his Cup Series career and was the first time a rookie won a race since 2016.

Even Custer, who hadn’t led laps in the Cup Series until his five Sunday, admitted after the race that he wasn’t expecting his team to end up in Victory Lane. Although, the No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing driver did say it was “the best car I’ve ever driven in my life.”

“I’m surprised, yes!” Custer said afterward on a Zoom call with reporters. “We have definitely done a better job these last few weeks. We started putting the whole picture together, and you’ve gotta just have the whole thing working together, whether it’s pit stops and restarts, or me doing my job, or having the car perfectly right.”

The win automatically qualifies Custer for the 16-driver, 10-race playoffs this fall, along with Wednesday’s All-Star Race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

On the final restart with two laps of the 267 total left, Harvick had the lead on the outside with Martin Truex Jr. restarting second on the inside, while Custer was sixth. The two veterans had been trading the lead back and forth in the last dozen laps, and it seemed like a late, two-man race in a largely uneventful Sunday.

Then suddenly, the leaders were racing four-wide for the lead and win.

As Harvick and Truex took off on the restart, Blaney and Custer, respectively, were hard-charging behind them looking for an avenue to pass.

After Blaney went to the inside of the track to make it three-wide with Harvick and Truex, Custer went to the outside lane. And by the time the white flag flew, signaling the final lap of the 400.5-mile race, they were four-wide.

“We were all tangling, battling and side-by-side, three-wide and all that mess,” said Truex, who ultimately finished second. “These things are all about momentum, so obviously he was just able to keep his momentum going and we all kind of came together there going into [Turn] 3. He was able to take advantage of it.

“Obviously, the outside is, most of the time, where you want to be, but you get a green-and-white checkered [flag] and a lot of crazy things can happen and guys are just pushing and shoving. So yeah, he was just [in the] right place at the right time.”

Harvick, sandwiched between Blaney and Truex, appeared to make contact with both of them, as Custer blew by them to take the lead and win the race. Matt DiBenedetto came in third, Harvick was fourth, Kurt Busch was fifth and Blaney was sixth.

“I just wanted to start yelling, honestly,” Custer said about taking the lead on the last lap.

“But I was like, ‘Man, I can’t. I’ve gotta wait until I get to the start-finish line because I’ll jinx this thing.’ So at that point, I kinda knew I had it. I mean, I thought I had it, but it was just — like any racer, I think we’re a little superstitious, so you’ve gotta wait until the end.”

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