Before narrowing down the field to four, the NASCAR Xfinity Series began its final round of the NASCAR playoffs. At the recent Las Vegas Motor Speedway race, AJ Allmendinger bagged his first win of the season. And what a great time to get a win booking the first spot in the final four. However, Allmendinger wasn’t a favorite to win the race, as many expected Cole Custer to take the checkered flag after his dominant performances in the season.

However, The Stewart Haas driver finished the race in 8th position. The regular season champion was disappointed with the race, as he thought his car didn’t have what was required. Custer is eyeing a back-to-back championship as he hopes to better his run in the next one.

Cole Custer opens up about the Las Vegas race

This is probably the last time Custer will run a full Xfinity season as the SHR driver is heading back to the Cup Series. This came after SHR announced it would only run a one-driver team in the 2025 Cup Series season under the banner of the Haas Factory team. Custer is looking to make the most of the current season as he’s the last hope of SHR to win a championship before they shut operations. However, Custer has struggled so far in the playoffs.

After a P2 in the Kansas playoff opener, Cole Custer finished in the 26th position in Talladega. Followed by a P13 at the Charlotte ROVAL. With the addition of the recent P8 Custer in the last three races has not made it to the top 5. This is surprising since he ended up in the top-5 12 times in the 2024 regular season. Post the Vegas race, Custer dwelled on his mediocre performance.

He said, “Just long run. Just rubber got down on the track, didn’t have the long run. We didn’t have what we needed to win today. But was a good points day I think I don’t know where we exactly at but maximized our day, the best we could.” Custer, after starting the race in P4, was quick to climb positions and win the first stage. However, he dropped in the final stages, but still managed a top 10 finish. Post the race, Custer finished +16 points above the cutline, following Justin Allgaier, who has a +32 points cushion heading to Homestead Miami.

Custer is hopeful for a good run in the next race as it could prove to be detrimental to his championship aspirations. “Homesteads been a good track for us so looking forward to it. We will just go maximize our day and see where we land. The chips are gonna fall how they gonna fall. And I think we have a good enough car. Even with him winning (AJ Allmendinger) good enough team to hopefully point our way in. We are looking forward to Homestead hopefully get a win there.”  In the last race there, Custer finished 13th. He would have to do better than that this year.

Custer is hoping to get back-to-back championships as he wishes to join an elite list of drivers to have achieved the feat. Only Seven drivers have done in the history of NASCAR, including Sam Ard (1983-84), Larry Pearson (1986-87), and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (1998-99). The most recent one to do it is Tyler Reddick after he won the Xfinity Series championships in 2018 and 2019.

Cole Custer eyes a second championship

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The SHR driver ahead of the Vegas race had said, “You just don’t get many chances to win championships. To have two years where you can go win championships and hopefully go back-to-back, that’s a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing, so you have to give it everything you’ve got.” Despite how the playoffs have been so far for the #00 driver, he’s still a strong contender for the championship.

The next race is in Homestead Miami, and the track has always been kind to Custer. Barring his p13 finish last year, he managed to finish in the top-2 in three out of the last four races, including a win in 2017. While Custer would be eyeing a win there to directly enter the championship 4, a finish in the top 5 should also be good enough. After Miami, the series would head to Martinsville, where Custer finished 8th in the spring race and 19th last year. The SHR driver will hopefully improve these numbers this year to comfortably make it past the eliminator and enter the Phoenix race.

Custer previously had dwelled on his game plan to bag another championship. He talked about what he would not be doing. “You just have to go out there and maximize what you got. I think you put yourself in those situations where you try and be aggressive, you’re giving yourself a 25% chance of wrecking, probably. You digging yourself a hole in trying to be aggressive and then wrecking for one spot, that’s how you put yourself in a must-win situation,” Custer said.

Overall, the chances for Custer to bag a back-to-back look strong. What do you think? Would he win another one before resuming his Cup career? Let us know in the comments down below.