LONG POND, Pa. – Cole Custer notched his third NASCAR Xfinity Series pole of the season during qualifying for the Pocono Green 250 on Saturday morning at Pocono Raceway.
Custer posted the fastest lap overall across the two knockout rounds and saved his best for when it counted most, turning a lap of 55.754 seconds (161.423 mph) in the No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang to earn the top starting spot.
The pole for Custer is his first since Richmond (Va.) Raceway in April. It also marks the second qualifying session for the high-drag, low-downforce package that includes restrictor plates to lower horsepower in the Xfinity Series cars, first utilized last summer at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“This is awesome. It’s cool to bring a whole new package that’s really unique to the race track and have a really fast race car,” said Custer. “It goes back to all the guys at the shop and shows that we have a lot of people working hard to figure things out fast. I’m looking forward to the race; I think we have a car that can do really well in race trim, but it’s going to be interesting out there, for sure.”
Custer is running double duty this weekend, racing for Rick Ware Racing in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.
Ryan Truex will join Custer on the front row, posting his second top-two qualifying effort of the year for Kaulig Racing after a time of 55.790 seconds (161.319 mph) in the No. 11 Phantom Fireworks Chevrolet Camaro.
Opening round leader Austin Cindric was third (55.827/161.212) in the No. 12 Ford for Team Penske, followed by all-time series wins leader Kyle Busch, who starts fourth (55.850/161.146) in the No. 18 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing.
Busch’s teammate Christopher Bell completed the top five. Brandon Jones was sixth ahead of Elliott Sadler, John Hunter Nemechek, Tyler Reddick, Chase Elliott and Daniel Hemric.
An impressive qualifying effort by Ross Chastain and JD Motorsports with Gary Keller saw them complete the top dozen after advancing to the final round of qualifying.
Paul Menard was the first driver who failed to make the final round and will start 13th in the No. 22 Ford for Team Penske. Menard toured the 2.5-mile triangle in 56.827 seconds at an average speed of 158.375 mph.
Other notables eliminated in round one included Kaz Grala (15th), Chase Briscoe (16th), Shane Lee (18th), Justin Allgaier (19th), Matt Tifft (21st) and Michael Annett (22nd).
Morgan Shepherd was the lone driver who failed to make the 40-car starting grid on Saturday morning.
To view the complete starting grid, advance to the next page.
