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NASCAR CUP SERIES: QUAKER STATE 400 presented by WALMARTJuly 12, 2020Cole CusterSparta, Kentucky THE MODERATOR: We are joined by the winner of today's Quaker State 400, Cole Custer. First NASCAR Cup Series win. Cole, take us through the final restart and your win for us. COLE CUSTER: Man, so, I mean, honestly I just knew I had to get to the top. I knew I didn't want to get put three‑wide. My spotter, Andy Houston, did a great job. He kept me in the right spots and everything. Those few restarts before, I had gone to the top before, it worked out really good. You're able to keep so much momentum up. I was like I just got to get to the top here, we'll see what happens. 4 and 19 got together. Opened the door for me to get a lot of momentum on them. Played into our favor. Unbelievable car all day. Honestly, that was the best car I've driven in a long time. We were kind of mired in traffic the whole day starting in the back. Once we got to the front, you just got to take advantage of it. THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for questions for Cole. Q. When you look back on your career the last couple years, is there a moment you feel gave you the confidence to know you could make this move and win this race? COLE CUSTER: Man, I mean, it just goes down to probably the Truck Series, honestly. I think our restarts are very similar to the Truck Series. You just got to keep momentum up, make three‑wide moves. I think that's just what you kind of got to base it off of. Overall it's a combination of everything, everything you learned throughout your career, trying to time the restarts right, get momentum on people, get to their outside. Once you're up front, you got to take advantage of it. I think we did that today. It's just unbelievable. I just came into this race hoping to get a solid finish and get us pointed in the right direction going towards the Playoffs. To come out of it winning is just unimaginable. Q. The easy narrative is this was a surprise and came out of nowhere. If you look at the results lately, you have been pretty good. Are you really all that surprised this came now this soon? COLE CUSTER: I'm surprised, yes (laughter). Q. Fair enough. COLE CUSTER: We have definitely done a lot better job these last few weeks. We started putting the whole picture together. You just got to have the whole thing working together, whether it's pit stops, restarts, me doing my job, having the car perfectly right. When you're just a little bit off in this series, you're going to pay for it big‑time. You can't be off in one area too much. You got to perfect all those areas, work at it. It's a lot of days when you're eyes are sore trying to look at film, trying to figure everything out. But it's just trying to put the whole picture together. I think we still have a ways to go. We have things we can do a lot better for sure. I think we're to the point now where we can race with these guys. We can take advantage of it when we're near the front. Q. Has it been any more difficult so far this year with the special circumstances of not having practice or qualifying, basically having to sort of learn just from race‑to‑race experience? COLE CUSTER: Yeah, I mean, you don't want to make too many excuses or anything. I think there's things I could have done a lot better honestly in these races. At the same time, like you said, with no practice and no qualifying, you don't get to test. You don't know what to expect as a rookie. You kind of go in there with some ideas of what to expect. Until you get a real feel for the car, you're just kind of guessing really. You can look at as much data or film as you want, but when you don't have the feel for it or what these guys are actually doing when they're out there, it's kind of tough. I think it's just a matter of once you get a feel for the car, you should be able to adapt during the race a lot better. Q. Not only did you qualify with your win today, but you get to skip the Open and go straight to the main event on Wednesday night. What kind of opportunity is that for you and this team? COLE CUSTER: It's unbelievable. I was kind of nervous going into Bristol, trying to make it into the All‑Star Race. It's not easy. There's a lot of good guys that are probably not going to make the race. To be in the All‑Star Race right now takes a lot of stress off. Who knows, maybe we can go win the $1 million. We were solid at Bristol before. Ended up getting wrecked. We obviously have a lot of confidence now in what we're doing. Just got to keep it going. Q. Kevin Harvick has been a huge help to you. I'm not taking anything away about what you've been able to accomplish, but how much has it helped to have him mentor you particularly since you've lost opportunity to test and practice this season? COLE CUSTER: He's been huge. Even in the Xfinity Series, I pretty much talked to him, especially my rookie year, every single race, trying to get an idea of what to expect, things he's looking for going into it, things like that. Just kind of gives you a basic idea of the big picture of what you want to do going into the race. Even the days like today where the track, you don't know what to expect, it's kind of just a guessing game, you call him and he's like, Yeah, I don't really know what to expect either. It kind of gives you at least confidence we're all kind of confused (laughter). I don't think anybody really knows exactly what they're doing. Kevin is obviously one of the best out there. He knows better than anybody what he wants to do when he gets to the track. Being age to talk to him and all my teammates at SHR has been a huge help. Q. The final restart, you get to the outside, what are you thinking going on the backstretch as the seas start to part, you have the momentum coming to the white flag? COLE CUSTER: I just wanted to start yelling honestly (laughter). I was like, man, I got to wait till I get to the start/finish line because I'll jinx this thing. At that point I kind of knew I had it. I thought I had it. Like any racers, we're a little bit superstitious so you got to wait till the end. Q. You talked the other day about what an adjustment it's been coming to the Cup Series. Talk more about adjusting to the aero package because it is different than what you had been running the last couple years, how much you've had to learn what this car can do. COLE CUSTER: The handling and how they are in traffic is completely different, a lot harder, not ideal. It's just you have a completely different throttle from clean air to dirty air, how you want to work the throttle. There's so many competitive cars, how you want to keep your momentum up. You want to make sure you don't get freight trained. You make one bad mistake, five guys are blowing past you. You got to get all those things working together. If you don't, it's a long day. It's just trying to figure out all those things of how to keep momentum up, how to work traffic the best. Q. 2009 was the last time a rookie had gone to Victory Lane. What does it mean to you to be able to be the one that breaks that streak and be the first of what was last year's big three from the Xfinity Series to get to Victory Lane? COLE CUSTER: I mean, pretty thankful. I think I'm with an amazing team that stood behind me. We had some pretty tough races, some really tough races. I mean, it was definitely a learning experience at some of them. I think we've grown from that. We've just dug deep, how you can get better every single race. It's just unbelievable to be in this situation right now. Coming into this, you're just trying to gain respect and trying to fit in almost, trying to kind of just earn the respect of the guys around you, the drivers out there. To come out of this with a win, I mean, just unimaginable. Q. You were one when your boss won the Rookie of the Year back in 1999. Have you talked to Tony yet? What did he say? COLE CUSTER: I haven't talked to him yet. Obviously everything goes pretty fast here. I'm sure I'll talk to him. He's just been unbelievable also. To have somebody like that, that I grew up watching on TV as your owner, to have somebody like that that can give you confidence before a race, pump you up, have somebody behind you, it's just unbelievable. Q. You entered today 25th in the points. Now you're locked into the Playoffs with the win. What does this do for you in terms of your season? Does it change the way you approach the next nine weeks? COLE CUSTER: It takes a lot of stress off. I mean, it was definitely really stressful. We kind of dug ourselves in a hole a little bit, not from wrecking cars or anything, just from inexperience, not knowing what to expect going into the races, not having a feel for the cars. I think we started to put the whole picture kind of together during the races. It's a matter of I think we've at least gotten to the point now where we can take advantage of things when we're at the front. Definitely takes a lot of stress off going into the rest of the year. We can kind of get the monkey off our back, focus on what's ahead, not second guess ourselves. Q. The stat about you being the first rookie to win in a long time here, first rookie to win a non‑weather shortened race was Montoya at Sonoma in 2007. How critical is this for your confidence, reassuring yourself you can win races here? COLE CUSTER: It's huge. I mean, honestly you come into this deal, you think all these guys you've watched on TV for years, you see all the big headlines and everything when you're growing up. These guys are like gods to you. At the end of the day everybody is the same kind of person. Everybody it's just a regular person. You kind of get used to that. I think nobody has life or racing all understood. It's just kind of trying to do your best to figure out and manage the best you can going into the weekend. It just gives you a lot of confidence that you can do it and you can go out there and compete with these guys. Q. How did it feel to not only get your first one but to help Mike, your crew chief, get his first win at the Cup level? COLE CUSTER: It's unbelievable. I think as a crew chief he's just unbelievable. I think he's extremely smart. He can honestly relate to a driver a lot, especially a rookie driver. I think he always has your back. He always is calm. He can honestly help you when he looks at the car. I got to look at myself when he's critiquing me. I'm able to listen to him. He actually makes sense even though he's not driving the thing. He just has a really good understanding. I think us and our engineer Davin, he's a huge part of it. Mike and Davin have worked together for the last five or six years I think in the Xfinity Series, with Davin as the lead engineer. I think they just have a great understanding. Mike is kind of big picture leading the ship, and Davin is really good at setting up the cars, finding speed. I think the combination of the three of us, we've gotten into a good rhythm of trying to figure out what we want to bring to the racetrack, making sure every box is checked, not leaving any stone unturned. Q. So far this season you've won at every level. How has the Cup Series been for you so far this year? What is the biggest thing you think you've learned throughout the first few races? COLE CUSTER: Honestly, I mean, just how you work traffic. I think that's the biggest thing. These cars are so hard to work in traffic, you got to kind of figure out really good how to manage being on the bottom to keep your momentum up, how to manage dirty air the best you can, how on restarts to kind of get in front of the dirty air, how to keep your momentum up in traffic. That's the whole deal. It's not easy because the dirty air is so bad. It's just a matter of sometimes being circumstantial. I think you got to take advantage of it when those opportunities arise that are good. Q. Your thoughts on the 'choose cone'? COLE CUSTER: I don't know. It should be all right, I guess. It should be interesting. It's going to put the drivers more in the hands of where we can kind of make decisions. I think it's going to make it interesting, especially at tracks where you have really one dominant lane. Who knows going into that one. It's going to be trying to figure out how much risk you want to take, I guess. Which lane has been really good? How even are they? It's going to change throughout the race which lane you want to take. Q. Now with this win that you have, you're locked into the All‑Star Race this Wednesday at Bristol, racing alongside the best in the sport. Does this win and being in the All‑Star Race change the way you and your team approaches the race at Bristol? COLE CUSTER: Takes a lot of stress off, honestly. I mean, I think it's just a matter of now we can go in there and just race hard. I think the 750 package is pretty close to what the Xfinity cars were. We have more confidence going into those races in what we do, how I drive the cars, things like that. This win definitely gives you the idea that you can compete with these guys, that you can go out there and race with them. There's still things that you got to make sure that you do right going into the weekend. You can't just get lazy. It's just a matter of you can bring some confidence into it now and not second guess yourself. THE MODERATOR: Cole, thanks for joining us today. Congratulations. Have a lot of fun at Bristol on Wednesday night. COLE CUSTER: Appreciate it. Hopefully I make it there (laughter). FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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