Cole Custer scores Bobby Dotter’s first NASCAR win

Bobby Dotter has been in NASCAR for four decades as a driver and owner of SS-Green Light Racing, with one Xfinity Series win to show for it during his driving days. SSGLR, on the other hand, never had much success in finding Victory Lane as a middling-at-best team for much of its existence. With help from an alliance with Stewart-Haas Racing, SHR Cup Series driver Cole Custer finally checked that box off when he survived three overtimes chaotic Production Alliance Group 300 at Auto Club Speedway.

Custer started second alongside pole winner A.J. Allmendinger, though his biggest adversary was Trevor Bayne, the 2011 Daytona 500 winner who was making his first Xfinity start since 2016. The two battled for the lead throughout the opening stage before Bayne came out on top with Custer in tow. Justin Allgaier, Noah Gragson, Ty Gibbs, Allmendinger, Josh Berry, Ryan Sieg, Daniel Hemric, and Sam Mayer rounded out the top ten.

Gibbs and Hemric, who were team-mates at Joe Gibbs Racing in 2021, clashed almost immediately after Stage #2 began when they collided, resulting in a post-race chat. Another JGR driver Brandon Jones spun on lap 57 for another caution. At the front, Custer took the lead after the Gibbs/Hemric incident and never looked back as he won the stage, while Jones rebounded to finish second. Allgaier, Gragson, Gibbs, Hemric, Allmendinger, Mayer, Berry, and Riley Herbst followed.

The final stage saw an escalation in incidents as Brandon Brown and Jade Buford spun, the latter hitting the inside wall in the process and ending his day. As the race neared its scheduled conclusion, hell seemed to break loose after Brett Moffitt and Sheldon Creed tagged the wall to set up the first overtime. Hemric collided with Jones on the restart to create another restart. Before Custer could take the white flag, Creed clipped Stefan Parsons and Jones was caught, sending the latter into the pit wall barrels and kicking up so much sand that a red flag was called. Ironically, Creed and Jones have both raced for Richard Childress Racing and crashed into pit barrels, with Creed being a current RCR driver who did so in a Camping World Truck Series event at Homestead in 2020; Robby Gordon and Tyler Reddick both slammed into barrels as RCR Cup drivers at the 2002 Richmond spring race and 2021 Next Gen car testing at Charlotte, respectively.

Despite a threatening Bayne and Anthony Alfredo, who was on newer tyres and conducting a furious charge to the front, Custer was able to hold them off on overtime #3 to win his tenth Xfinity race.

“I came to this track when I was five years old, so it is pretty amazing to come here and win at your home track,” said Custer. “I have always loved coming to this place and I hope we keep coming here in the future.”

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	2	07	Cole Custer*	SS-Green Light Racing	Ford	165	Running
2	6	9	Noah Gragson	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	165	Running
3	4	18	Trevor Bayne	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	165	Running
4	11	8	Josh Berry	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	165	Running
5	28	23	Anthony Alfredo	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	165	Running
6	13	1	Sam Mayer	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	165	Running
7	1	16	A.J. Allmendinger	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	165	Running
8	20	7	Justin Allgaier	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	165	Running
9	16	98	Riley Herbst	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	165	Running
10	14	39	Ryan Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	165	Running
11	30	68	Brandon Brown	Brandonbilt Motorsports	Chevrolet	165	Running
12	5	11	Daniel Hemric	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	165	Running
13	12	54	Ty Gibbs	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	165	Running
14	21	27	Jeb Burton	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	165	Running
15	18	38	Joe Graf Jr.	RSS Racing	Ford	165	Running
16	22	92	Kyle Weatherman	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	165	Running
17	10	51	Jeremy Clements	Jeremy Clements Racing	Chevrolet	165	Running
18	38	28	Kyle Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	165	Running
19	17	02	Brett Moffitt	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	165	Running
20	36	35	Joey Gase	Emerling-Gase Motorsports	Toyota	165	Running
21	34	78	Josh Williams	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	165	Running
22	24	66	J.J. Yeley	MBM Motorsports	Toyota	165	Running
23	25	5	Matt Mills	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	165	Running
24	19	36	Alex Labbé	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	165	Running
25	29	45	Kaz Grala*	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	163	Running
26	31	31	Myatt Snider	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	163	Running
27	8	21	Austin Hill	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	162	Running
28	33	91	Mason Massey	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	162	Running
29	37	26	Jeffrey Earnhardt	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	161	Running
30	23	99	Stefan Parsons	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	159	Accident
31	27	44	Tommy Joe Martins	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	158	Running
32	9	2	Sheldon Creed	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	156	Accident
33	3	19	Brandon Jones	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	155	Accident
34	26	4	Bayley Currey	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	154	Running
35	32	6	Ryan Vargas	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	150	Accident
36	35	34	Jesse Iwuji	Jesse Iwuji Motorsports	Chevrolet	131	Running
37	15	48	Jade Buford	Big Machine Racing Team	Chevrolet	123	Accident
38	7	10	Landon Cassill	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	6	Engine
DNQ	33		Will Rodgers	Reaume Brothers Racing	Toyota
DNQ	08		Joe Graf Jr.	SS-Green Light Racing	Ford
DNQ	47		Brennan Poole	Mike Harmon Racing	Chevrolet

Underscore – Graf replaced J.J. Yeley in the #38 after failing to qualify in the #08
Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for Xfinity points