Cole Custer Earns Pole Position For Bristol Dirt Race
Things are done differently on the dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway, including Cup qualifying.
Instead of single-car or group qualifying, Heat races this evening determined starting positions for the feature race tomorrow night. Each Heat race rewarded drivers with points for their finishing position, but also for cars passed on track. The total number of points collected set the starting lineup for tomorrow’s race.
The first Heat race was won by Tyler Reddick, who was one of the fastest cars in practice yesterday. Finishing just behind him was Cole Custer, who gained seven positions in the race. The Stewart Haas Racing driver earned a total of 16 points which earned him pole position for tomorrow's main event.
Christopher Bell is one of the best dirt racers on the planet and was able to guide his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to the front in Heat 2, taking the checkered flag from the 5th starting spot. His teammate Kyle Busch finished in 2nd, where he started the race.
Justin Haley won Heat 3 after starting next to Joey Logano on the front row. The two swapped finishing positions after Haley led all 15 laps. Ty Dillon also led all 15 laps in the final Heat race, crossing the finish line ahead of Hendrick Motorsports drivers Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson.
There were no major incidents tonight, only a few innocent spins on track. That will likely become a theme tomorrow night, as drivers continue to struggle with finding lanes on the track, visibility with all of the dust, and of course still learning the Next Gen cars and the new Goodyear tires. This race will also be run under the lights, unlike last year when it took place during the day.
Joining Custer on the front row tomorrow will be Bell, who is one of the heavy favorites to win the event. Starting in row 2 will be Reddick and Chase Briscoe, another incredibly talented dirt racer. Row 3 starters are Larson and Haley, followed by Ty Dillon and Alex Bowman in row 4 and Elliott and Logano rounding out the top ten starters.
Larson has struggled this season, after winning 10 races and the championship last year. This event just might be what the doctor ordered in terms of getting him back into his groove. There will be plenty of competition though, with several talented drivers starting just behind him.
Some big names will be starting in the rear of the field for this race tomorrow night. Ryan Blaney starts 25th after a disappointing result in the first Heat race when he spun by himself. Martin Truex Jr starts 30th, and certainly has his hands full here at Bristol.
“I basically went from feeling like I was okay, pretty decent at the end of the first practice to the second practice, the entire time, just feeling like I was a bird with no wings,” Truex said. “I couldn’t do anything. I was just hanging on. I was really slow, couldn’t find any traction on the race track.”
While Custer leads the field to the green flag, two of his teammates will be starting back in row 16 in Aric Almirola and Kevin Harvick. Ross Chastain has been having a career year, but he will start 33rd tomorrow after spinning on the final lap of the first Heat race. Starting alongside him in 34th will be Denny Hamlin, who made contact with the wall yesterday.
This is the first career pole for Custer, who is still searching for his first top-ten finish this season. The same could be said of Hamlin a couple of weeks ago at Richmond, and he responded by winning the race. Custer is hoping for the same result tomorrow night.
“The guys did a great job guessing right on the track,” Custer said. “It’s so much different than practice and we hit on it. It’s just awesome, first career pole, I never thought I’d get my first career pole at a dirt race. When you start in the back you have to worry about just not going a lap down in the first run. To be able to start on the pole is a huge deal for our team. The guys did a great job on the car. I was able to get to the top (lane) and kind of start rolling.”
Drivers have already noticed a big difference in the track this year than what they drove on last season. “Last year, we saw the race track like really come apart, get real patchy and have holes, which you can make grip through the holes and give it a bunch of character,” Bowman said. “And this year, it’s just super slick and smooth and a little bit on the bottom, little bit on the top and then a bunch of dust.”
Briscoe took notice of the different lanes, and how that might make for better racing tomorrow night. “I thought it was interesting how we were running the top versus last year we were always on the bottom. Hopefully, we can race where it’s like that and you can kind of move around and it’s not just stuck on the bottom.” The track is slicker and more smooth at night time, which should make for great on-track action.
The question is will anything from this race last year help teams tomorrow night? Blaney doesn't seem to think so. “The car is obviously different. The tire is way different. The tire is way better this year, honestly. It’s got way more grip, and you can actually drive it more, so I don’t know if you can compare much like car-to-car, setup-to-setup. You try to look at the trends of the race track and all that but there’s not a lot you can compare.”
The action on Easter Sunday begins at 7 PM ET on FOX.
