Cole Custer back on Xfinity pole at Phoenix
AVONDALE, ARIZ. — Two non-drafting-dependent races down in the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series season and no one has defeated Cole Custer for the pole.
Custer ran a lap of 27.380 seconds, averaging 131.483 MPH, and won the pole for the Call811.com Every Dig. Every Time. 200 at Phoenix Raceway. Chandler Smith will join him on the front row after running a lap after of 27.507s, averaging 130.876 MPH.
Last week at Las Vegas, Custer won the pole and Smith started second. The same thing happened at Daytona and Atlanta when Jesse Love won the pole and Austin Hill finished second.
Custer now has 20 poles in Xfinity Series career. He has earned six poles in each of his three prior full-time seasons (2018, 2019, 2023) and is on track for the same this year. He sits 12th on the all-time poles list in the series.
Qualifying third, Corey Heim earned the best starting spot for Sam Hunt Racing. SHR debuted in the 2019 season finale, made nine starts in 2020 and have raced full-time the last three Xfinity Series seasons.
TOP-10: Custer, C. Smith, Heim, Riley Herbst, Justin Allgaier, Sheldon Creed, Jesse Love, Aric Almirola, John Hunter Nemechek, A.J. Allmendinger
C.J. McLaughlin missed the race.
Points leader Austin Hill and defending Sammy Smith will share row eight in 15th and 16th. Meanwhile, odds-on favorite William Byron will start 28th.
Full lineup, odds, times and more: NASCAR at Phoenix: Odds, times, lineups, results and more
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Jonathan Fjeld View All
Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.
A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.
Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick's final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen's stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers' stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.
Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com