Saturday Indianapolis Notebook

Notebook Items:
Cole Custer will return to NASCAR Cup Series with Haas Factory Team
Denny Hamlin longs to add Brickyard 400 trophy to his collection
Martin Truex Jr. reflects on the Indianapolis win that got away
Chase Briscoe in pursuit of memorable victory on his home track

July 20, 2024

By Reid Spencer and Holly Cain
NASCAR Wire Service

Cole Custer will return to NASCAR Cup Series with Haas Factory Team

SPEEDWAY, Ind. — In 2025, reigning NASCAR Xfinity Series champion Cole Custer will get a second chance in the sport’s top division.

Custer will drive the No. 41 Ford for the Haas Factory Team in 2025 after the dissolution of Stewart-Haas Racing’s four-car NASCAR Cup Series operation at the end of the season.

The Haas Factory Team also will maintain a technical alliance with Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing, with additional support from Ford Performance.

Custer spent three full seasons in the Cup Series from 2020 through 2022, winning one race at Kentucky Speedway and posting one other top five in 108 starts during that period.

Returning to the Xfinity Series last season, Custer won three races, including the Championship 4 season finale at Phoenix Raceway.

The 26-year-old driver from Ladera Ranch, Calif., welcomes the chance to return to NASCAR’s top level for owner Gene Haas, who also operates the Haas F1 Team.

“To get an opportunity back in Cup was the biggest goal,” said Custer, who won last Saturday’s Xfinity race at Pocono and leads the series standings by 51 points over second-place Justin Allgaier.

“To have this opportunity to get to drive for Haas Factory Team next year is huge for me, and I think we can do some really special things with the resources we have as a team. We’re ready to get work and get some great people, and I think we’ll be able to compete with the best.”

Haas Factory Team also will continue to maintain the Xfinity Series program started under the Stewart-Haas banner. Haas Factory Team president Joe Custer, Cole’s father, says the new organization has made an offer to current driver Riley Herbst, but no deal has been finalized.

Custer also said Haas Factory Team explore other possibilities before settling on the technical alliance with RFK.

“Along with Ford as a partner, we’re lacing no resource going into next year,” Custer said.

Denny Hamlin longs to add Brickyard 400 trophy to his collection

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin has fashioned a celebrated career—54 NASCAR Cup Series wins, including three Daytona 500 victories, three Southern 500 wins and a Coca-Cola 600 trophy.

But the 43-year old veteran still has that one cherished trophy he’d love to add to the collection: a Brickyard 400 win on the historic oval track.

Hamlin has eight top-10 finishes in 15 starts on the oval and scored a career-best third-place finish three times, in 2008, 2014 and 2018.

“To me the Southern 500 and the Brickyard 400 (are) kind of equal in prestige,” said Hamlin, who added that he’s glad NASCAR moved its big event from the road course back to the 2.5-mile oval.

“I always felt that we were going to come back here one day,” said the driver of the No. 11 JGR Toyota. “I was never resigned to the fact that the road course was going to be a permanent thing.

“But I just didn’t know how long my career would go at that point. I don’t have that many chances left. It’s less than what’s on my hand I would think, so just going to take advantage of every opportunity.

“Overall, I feel like I’ve always been in contention here, just never gotten it done.”

Hamlin was one of three drivers who participated in a test at Indianapolis earlier this season and was third quickest in practice on Friday.

Martin Truex Jr. reflects on the Indianapolis win that got away

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Martin Truex Jr. will be the first to tell you that his record on the 2.5-mile oval at Indianapolis Motor Speedway is far from exemplary.

In 16 starts on the big track, Truex has one top five and three top 10s to his credit. His average finish is a lackluster 22.4.

But the Brickyard 400 Truex remembers most vividly is the race in 2017, when he had a car capable of winning.

Kyle Busch had the dominant car that day, having led 87 of the first 102 laps, but Truex had taken the top spot from his fellow Toyota driver on Lap 103, before Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Jimmie Johnson crashed on the backstretch to cause the eighth caution of the afternoon.

As the leader, Truex chose the inside lane for the restart on Lap 111, with Busch to his outside. Their cars raced side-by-side toward Turn 1, with Busch pulling slightly ahead entering the corner.

That’s when Truex’s car lost grip and slid up the track into Busch’s Camry, wrecking both cars beyond repair.

“Yeah, that one definitely hurt,” Truex acknowledged. “This has never been what I’d consider one of my best tracks, and that year we had what we needed to win, and I made a dumb move.

“I wish I could redo that one, for sure, and see how the day would have played out.”

Sunday’s race may be Truex’s last chance for a victory at Indianapolis. In June, he announced his retirement from full-time, effective at the end of the season.

Chase Briscoe in pursuit of memorable victory on his home track

Chase Briscoe has a lot to look forward to—his wife is pregnant with twins, and he recently signed a contract with the championship Joe Gibbs Racing organization to continue competing in the NASCAR Cup Series after his current team, Stewart-Haas Racing, closes shop at the end of the season.

Before all those other important events commence, however, the proud Hoosier most wants to earn a win at his home track, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, in his racing idol Tony Stewart’s iconic No. 14 Ford.

Briscoe won a NASCAR Xfinity Series race on the road course configuration in 2020. He competed in a pair of Xfinity Series races on the 2.5-mile oval in 2018 and 2019, scoring top-10 finishes both times. All three of his NASCAR Cup Series starts in the No. 14 have been on the road course, however.

“It certainly means a little bit more when it’s on the oval,” Briscoe allowed. “When you think about the history of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the history is on the oval, it’s not on the road course.

“But still, winning here in general is very, very special. So, for me, if I was able to win on the oval, it would mean a little bit more, but it’s going to mean more than any other race track I could win at regardless.”

Briscoe conceded it will be emotional for him driving for fellow Indiana-native Stewart one last time at The Speedway.

“Full transparency, I cry every year just on the ride-around deal,” Briscoe said. “With it being on the oval and doing it in the 14, all that, it’s going to definitely be emotional for me. It’s something that I honestly hadn’t even thought about until a couple weeks ago.

“For seven- or 10-year-old Chase, if you would have told him that he was going to get around one Brickyard 400 in the 14 car for Tony Stewart, I don’t think I would have ever believed you.”