Cole Custer Wins NASCAR K&N Pro Series East Race at Richmond International Raceway

Cole Custer is Victorious in his third career NASCAR K&N Pro Series East race

Rain or shine, Cole Custer delivers on the NASCAR K&N Pro Series

He won the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East race at Richmond International Raceway, his third in 16 starts.

He had to wait a day to win the Blue Ox 100. The race was scheduled for Friday night, but a three-hour rain delay postponed the start until Saturday morning.

Cole Custer in persuit of Nick Drake

Custer passed pole winner Nick Drake on lap 49 and led the remaining 52 laps. It was the only lead change in the race.

“We followed Nick in the early part, but part of it was I spun the tires on the first couple of restarts,” said Custer. “I finally figured it out and we got him on the restart.”

Custer started the race on the front row with Drake. There were five caution periods for 32 laps. A multicar crash on lap 41 set up the restart when Custer took the lead from Drake.

“I think we did get around lappers pretty good today,” Custer said. “I think we just caught them in the right spot. I was able to get off turn 2 pretty good.”

Custer opened the season by winning the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West race at Phoenix International Raceway. He made his second K&N Pro Series East of 2014 start at Richmond.

Cole Custer burnsout to celebrate his Richmond International Raceway win

The 16-year old from Ladera Ranch, California, also won K&N Pro Series races at Iowa Speedway and New Hampshire International Speedway last year.

Ben Rhodes finished in second place at Richmond International Raceway, his fourth top-five finish in five races.

Cole Custer and team in Victory Lane

“I was trying to catch (Custer) though,” Rhodes said. “He had a really fast car. It was a really good day for us. I’m really happy with our finish.”

Rhodes leads the K&N Pro Series East standings by 18 points over Gray Gaulding. Gaulding was 11th at Richmond.

Drake crossed the finish line in third place, his second top-five finish of the season. It was his fifth career K&N Pro Series East start.

“At the end there, there was no grip. The track was pretty green,” Drake said. “You just couldn’t run those guys down at the end. We were OK if we were in the lead. I feel like just whoever was leading was going to stay our front due to the fact that there was no grip on the track. I’ll take a third.”

Austin Hill was fourth followed by Ronnie Bassett Jr. in fifth.

The next NASCAR K&N Pro Series race is the Casey’s General Stores 150 at Iowa Speedway on May 17.