NASCAR Xfinity Series: Cole Custer wins 2018 O’Reilly Auto Parts 300

Cole Custer earned his second career NASCAR Xfinity Series victory and his first victory of the 2018 season by winning the O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 at Texas Motor Speedway.

Stewart-Haas Racing’s Cole Custer clinched a berth in the 2018 NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship 4 at Homestead-Miami Speedway by winning the second race of the round of 8, the O’Reilly Auto Parts 300, at Texas Motor Speedway. The victory is his second career Xfinity Series victory, and it is his first victory of the season.

Custer, who started the 200-lap race around the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) Texas Motor Speedway oval in Fort Worth, Texas in third place in his #00 Ford, won it by just 0.162 seconds over JR Motorsports’ Tyler Reddick, who finished in second place in his #9 Chevrolet.

Reddick took the white flag as the race leader, but Custer ran him down on the back straightaway. The two drivers bumped into one another coming down the back straightaway, and Custer came out with the lead, which he did not relinquish before he took the checkered flag.

Here is a video of the end of the race.

Third place finisher Austin Cindric of Team Penske finished just 0.316 seconds behind Custer in his #22 Ford. Chip Ganassi Racing’s John Hunter Nemechek and JR Motorsports’ Justin Allgaier rounded out the top five by finishing in fourth and fifth in their #42 Chevrolet and #7 Chevrolet, respectively.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Brandon Jones, Richard Childress Racing’s Matt Tifft, JR Motorsports’ Elliott Sadler, GMS Racing’s Spencer Gallagher and Richard Childress Racing’s Daniel Hemric rounded out the top 10 by finishing in sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and 10th place in their #19 Toyota, #2 Chevrolet, #1 Chevrolet, #23 Chevrolet and #21 Chevrolet, respectively.

More from Xfinity Series

• NASCAR: Two new drivers linked to Joe Gibbs Racing
• NASCAR: Frankie Muniz linked to surprise landing spot
• NASCAR: How a sudden downfall inadvertently created a champion
• NASCAR: Kaulig driver linked to Joe Gibbs Racing for 2024
• NASCAR: Another top prospect leaves Toyota for 2024

The race featured a total of 17 lead changes among eight drivers. Aside of Custer, who led 16 laps, seven other drivers led at least one lap of the race. Those drivers were Reddick, who led more laps than anybody else in the field with 54 laps led, Nemechek, Allgaier, Jones, Hemric, Shane Lee and race polesitter Christopher Bell. Hemric won stage one and Custer won stage two.

The race also featured a total of 13 caution flag periods for 54 laps. Two caution flag periods took place as a result of the endings of stages one and two while the other 11 took place as a result of on-track incidents.

Of the 39 drivers who started the race, 29 finished it and 16 finished it on the lead lap. Most notably, Bell failed to finish the race. He spun out on the first lap after starting from the pole position, and he was involved in a wreck on lap 134 after he battled back to lead 35 laps.

Here are the full race results of the 2018 O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 at Texas Motor Speedway.

Race Results
1st – Cole Custer
2nd – Tyler Reddick
3rd – Austin Cindric
4th – John Hunter Nemechek
5th – Justin Allgaier
6th – Brandon Jones
7th – Matt Tifft
8th – Elliott Sadler
9th – Spencer Gallagher
10th – Daniel Hemric
11th – Ross Chastain
12th – Ryan Sieg
13th – Ty Majeski
14th – Jeremy Clements
15th – J.J. Yeley
16th – Michael Annett
17th – Chad Finchum
18th – Brandon Brown
19th – Ray Black Jr.
20th – Garrett Smithley
21st – Bayley Currey
22nd – Joey Gase
23rd – Shane Lee
24th – David Starr
25th – Spencer Boyd
26th – Quin Houff
27th – Vinnie Miller
28th – Mike Harmon
29th – Ryan Reed
30th – Alex Labbe
31st – Ryan Preece
32nd – Christopher Bell
33rd – Ryan Truex
34th – Bobby Earnhardt
35th – Timmy Hill
36th – B.J. McLeod
37th – Stephen Leicht
38th – Jeff Green
39th – Morgan Shepherd

The final race of the 2018 NASCAR Xfinity Series round of 8 is scheduled to take place on Saturday, November 10 at ISM Raceway in Avondale, Arizona. This race, the Whelen Trusted To Perform 200, is set to be broadcast live on NBC beginning at 3:30 p.m. ET.