Cole Custer got by Tyler Reddick in the final turn to win Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series Pocono Green 250 at Pocono Raceway.
Reddick had the top spot with a daring move when the race restarted for an overtime finish. But Custer was able to dive below Reddick coming out of Turn 3 and held the lead the rest of the way to score the win.
“I was nervous once he got by me,” Custer said. “He just drove in the corner real deep and I had my downshift timed right and hoped we’d get by him.
“Tyler gave me a real run for my money there. I have no idea how he made it stick on that restart on the bottom passing me but he did. He was unbelievable on the brakes at the end. I was just able to kind of force a mistake a little bit trying to pack air on him. It was a fun end of the race. I wish I didn’t have to do it like that, but it probably made it exciting.”
It was the third win of the year for Custer and the fifth of his career. He wound up leading four times for a total of 58 laps, including the final circuit.
Reddick was forced to settle for second and his ninth top-five performance of the season.
“I tried to really get it stopped and make sure I covered the bottom,” Reddick explained of the final pass for the lead. “We just fought tight over the last half of the race. Thought we had a really good restart, got by Cole, but I was too tight out front in clean air. I just got loose in Turn 3 and gave it back.”
Chase Briscoe, Ryan Preece and Christopher Bell, who spun out earlier in the race, rounded out the top five.
Noah Gragson, Austin Cindric, Michael Annett, Justin Haley and Austin Dillon completed the first 10 finishers.
Brandon Jones was involved in a crash early in the race and was credited with a 38th-place finish.
Custer and Justin Allgaier won the first two stages of the race.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series now heads to Michigan International Speedway next Saturday afternoon.
