Auto Club Xfinity race: Cole Custer wins in triple overtime

NASCAR Cup Series regular Cole Custer had a winning return to the Xfinity Series Saturday at Auto Club Speedway.

Custer led a race-high 80 laps but had to survive three overtime attempts before taking the checkered flag. It’s his 10th career victory in NASCAR’s No. 2 national series.

His win is also the first in the Xfinity Series for SS Green Light Racing. The Bobby Dotter-owned team shares a technical alliance with Custer’s Cup team, Stewart-Haas Racing.

Custer’s crew had a rough day on pit road, where they lost multiple spots on several occasions. But a fast No. 07 Ford helped Custer overcome those issues.

“Man, that was just an awesome car,” Custer told Fox Sports. “That thing was a rocket ship all day. I can’t thank Bobby Dotter enough and everybody who was involved on this car. It was unreal how fast we were.”

Custer took the lead off a restart with six laps to go in scheduled distance (Lap 145 of 150). But a caution with four laps to go sent the race into overtime.

The first OT attempt ended quickly with Brandon Jones spinning in Turn 2 off contact with Daniel Hemric.

Then, on the second OT attempt, Jones got the worst of a clash between Sheldon Creed and Stefan Parsons ahead of him. Jones’ attempt to avoid them led to him sliding into the sand barrels at the entrance to pit road.

That brought out another caution before leader Custer could take the white flag, extending the race again. The race was then red-flagged (23 minutes, one second) for clean-up.

As overtime progressed, Anthony Alfredo emerged as a threat thanks to four fresh tires he had taken prior to the restart on Lap 145.

He restarted outside the top 20 after taking those tires. But through the multiple yellows, he rose all the way up to the front row,