CUP: Cole Custer swept up in multi-car melee at the start of Sunday’s All-Star Race in Dover

May 17

by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief

Cole Custer finished last in Sunday’s NASCAR All-Star Race at the Dover Motor Speedway when his #41 Haas / Autodesk Chevrolet was collected in a multi-car accident after he completed just 1 of the race’s combined 350 laps.

Just last Sunday in Watkins Glen, Custer and the Haas Factory Team scored their best Cup finish of the season with a 15th-place finish. That run, combined with a late-race crash that ruined Cody Ware’s own strong run for Rick Ware Racing, was just enough to move Custer out of 36th in points. This year’s return to Chevrolet has not gone according to plan. The Glen was just his third lead-lap finish of the season, his first since COTA in March, and his average finish has remained a paltry 28.1.

This season also marked the first time the NASCAR All-Star Race would be held at “The Monster Mile,” and the first time in the event’s history that the All-Star Open would be merged into the main event. Custer was among the 36 entrants for the 350-lap race, and among the 17 who would contest the remaining seven positions in the final 200-lap main event, which would be determined by the first two 75-lap segments.

Driving the black-and-white Autodesk scheme he last ran at Talladega, Custer began the weekend ranking 33rd in opening practice with a best lap of 23.413 seconds (153.761mph). In qualifying, where he had to exit pit road, run a full lap at speed, then complete a pit stop on Lap 2, he was the second driver to take time and earned the 22nd spot with an average lap of 114.988 seconds (93.923mph). His pit crew ranked 26th overall, earning a time of 14.919 seconds with no time penalties.

Securing the 36th and final starting spot was A.J. Allmendinger, whose #16 Celsius Chevrolet had a battery issue that kept him from participating in qualifying. He ranked behind 35th-place starter Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., the other driver who didn’t log a lap in time trials after he bumped the outside wall and spun his #47 NOS Energy Chevrolet during qualifying. Both Allmendinger and Custer would receive tail-end penalties for unapproved adjustments along with 23rd-place starter Cody Ware in the #51 Museum of the Bible Chevrolet. Also sent to the back was 33rd-place starter Daniel Suarez, whose #7 Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation Chevrolet had a right-front wheel rim come apart in Turn 1 during qualifying. The lost wheel put Suarez in the wall, sending the team scrambling to prepare his backup car. Suarez’ time was disallowed along with John Hunter Nemechek’s run in the #42 Dollar Tree Toyota.

When the field rolled onto the track, Allmendinger was to the outside of Suarez in the final row with Custer ahead of Allmendinger and Ware to Custer’s left. Allmendinger had to adjust his pit road timing as he’d been caught speeding in Sections 1 and 3 during his speed check. As the green flag dropped, Allmendinger got a big run on Custer and looked to the high side of Turn 1, passing both Suarez and Ware and briefly putting the #7 in last place. But Ware fought back on the inside of Turns 3 and 4 to retake the spot, and Suarez squeaked past short of the stripe to keep Allmendinger last at the start of Lap 2. By then, trouble broke out up front.

Heading into Turn 1 at the start of Lap 2, Todd Gilliland’s #34 Long John Silver’s / Frank’s Red Hot Ford found itself caught in the middle lane as Kyle Larson’s #5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet moved up to his left and Ryan Preece’s #60 Mohawk Northeast Inc. Ford pulled down to his right. The on-board camera made it appear Larson blew a right-front tire, but after he arrived in the garage, that tire was still up. As the hole closed, Larson got into Preece, who spun to the inside as Larson veered into the outside wall with his right-front. Preece skated through the entrance of Turn 1, where he backed into the outside wall hard enough to rupture his full fuel cell, which ignited as he rolled to a stop on the apron. Preece walked away without serious injury, but multiple cars were involved. Among them was Suarez, who just slipped past Allmendinger for the 35th spot. At the accident scene, Suarez spun 180 degrees, trapping Custer, who tried to clear him up high. The two made contact, slamming Custer into the outside wall. Also collected was Ryan Blaney, who had significant nose damage to his #12 Menards / Wrangler Ford.

By the time the red flag came out to clean up a nine-car pileup, Larson made it to pit road along with Gilliland and Blaney with Blaney pulling behind the wall at the entrance at Turn 1. The only two drivers unable to clear the scene were the smoldering #60 of Preece and Custer, who was still against the outside wall. Preece’s car was towed “hammock-style” between two tow trucks, followed by Custer’s, which was dragged behind another truck, then backed into a stall facing Turns 1 and 2.

With so many cars eliminated in the same wreck, there were again some scoring issues. NASCAR.com showed Custer in the last spot with Preece in 35th, both already losing laps to the leaders with just one lap completed each. Blaney was shown in 32nd, even though he was shown on the same lap as both Preece and Custer, one lap behind the 33rd and 34th-place cars of Larson and Gilliland. The site’s raw feed showed Blaney credited with two completed laps, the result of passing the stripe to enter the garage at Turn 1, which also kept him 32nd. Both FS1 and HBO Max showed Blaney in last place. Both Blaney and Larson’s crews were completing repairs to get their cars ready for the 200-lap main event.

Meanwhile, Custer’s on-board camera was shut off, and he was the first car declared out on Lap 18, just after the driver was checked and released from the infield care center. Gilliland would also be declared out. Preece wouldn’t be declared out until Lap 99, about the one-third mark of Segment 2. By then, other accidents filled the garage area, first eliminating Chase Elliott in the #9 Amazon Prime Chevrolet and Nemechek’s #42 Dollar Tree Toyota, hen Ross Chastain’s #1 Busch Light Chevrolet and Chris Buescher’s #17 Ford. Christopher Bell also spent an extended stay in the garage before he returned to the track on Lap 53. Eight laps later, Blaney finally returned to the track. By then, scoring had reset to show him 61 laps down as each segment was treated as a separate race, allowing Blaney to climb to 28th with 13 laps completed in Segment 2. Larson made his return under the caution that ended Segment 2, keeping him 33rd.

Custer, Preece, and Gilliland were among the ten drivers eliminated from the 26-car field for the main event.

LASTCAR STATISTICS

*This marked the first last-place finish for the #41 in the NASCAR All-Star Race, though it had finished last in one running of the then-separated All-Star Open when David Green had handling issues on his #41 Kodiak Chevrolet after 10 laps on May 22, 1999. The number’s most recent last-place finish in a Cup points race at Dover was April 28, 2024, when Ryan Preece was involved in another car fire, this one caused by door foam, after 66 laps.

THE BOTTOM FIVE

36) #41-Cole Custer / 1 lap / crash

35) #60-Ryan Preece / 1 lap / crash

34) #34-Todd Gilliland / 1 lap / crash

33) #5-Kyle Larson / 2 laps / undergoing repairs

32) #12-Ryan Blaney / 2 laps / undergoing repairs

Larson drags damaged car to last place in All-Star Main

For the 200-lap main event, Suarez won the fan vote to become the 26th and final starter, the left side of his car so heavily battered that the team had to fashion a new door number out of orange tape. This placed him on the outside of the final row with the yet more damaged car of Larson, back on track for the first time since the Lap 2 pileup, starting to his inside. On the restart, Suarez pulled ahead of Larson entering Turn 1, but Larson battled back down low and cleared him coming off Turn 4.

By Lap 2, Larson had also cleared Blaney’s battered Ford, which Suarez cleared on the approach to Turn 3, putting Blaney in last place. Suarez now worked on new 24th-place runner Shane Van Gisbergen in the #97 Safety Culture Chevrolet. On Lap 3, Van Gisbergen broke loose off Turn 2, letting Suarez by into 24th. Coming to the start of Lap 9, Blaney got under Suarez to drop the #7 back to last place. Meanwhile, Larson had climbed to 21st by Lap 10, but was fighting a loose condition. On Lap 15, he was passed on the high side by both Christopher Bell in the #20 Mobil 1 Toyota and Josh Berry in the #21 Motorcaft / Quick Lane Ford, followed on Lap 16 by Blaney to his inside entering Turn 3. Van Gisbergen made it by up high on Lap 19 as the two made it through Turns 3 and 4, dropping Larson to 25th. Then on Lap 21, Suarez passed Larson in the high lane coming off Turn 2, dropping Larson to last place.

Larson stayed in touch with Suarez, and on Lap 26 got back under him down the backstretch to drop the #7 back to last place. On Lap 38, Saurez got under Larson entering Turn 1, putting Larson back to last place, and race leader Chase Briscoe followed by in the high lane coming off Turn 2. On Lap 47, Ty Gibbs came in for an unscheduled stop with the right-front tire shredded on his #54 Monster Energy Toyota. He overshot his stall, adding to a delay that dropped him to last place, now three laps down. Kyle Busch then made his own green-flag stop in the #8 Lucas Oil Chevrolet, which also put him 3 down in 25th, followed by Bell who lost two laps to take 24th. This lifted Larson to 23rd and Suarez to 22nd, but both lost the Lucky Dog to 21st-place Bubba Wallace, who by Lap 70 had lost a lap in his #23 Xfinity Toyota.

The competition caution fell on Lap 74, during which Larson made two more pit stops that dropped him back to last place, two laps down, and lifting the now two lap-down Gibbs up to 24th. On Lap 91, Larson made a green-flag stop for four tires that dropped him another two laps behind, putting him four down. On Lap 114, race leader Denny Hamlin moved past Larson on the backstretch to put him a fifth lap down. Gibbs made another unscheduled stop on Lap 128, putting him five laps down. Hamlin then lapped Larson off Turn 2 on Lap 129, putting the #5 a sixth lap down. Larson made his own stop on Lap 131, dropping him eight laps down as he got back up to speed.

Then on Lap 139, Joey Logano blew a left-rear tire on his #22 Shell / Pennzoil Ford, pulling him backwards and into the outside wall. He climbed from the car without serious injury, and by Lap 141 had fallen three laps down in 23rd. Two laps later on Lap 141, Larson’s crew chief Cliff Daniels told him to pull down pit road and enter the garage. “Super proud of the fight out there,” he told his driver. This stopped Larson three laps short of dropping Logano to last place. Gibbs remained on track just long enough to put Logano in that 25th spot before he, too, pulled up behind the team’s hauler. Rounding out the Bottom Five were Bell, then Tyler Reddick, whose #45 ACM Awards / Pinnacle Toyota bounced off the wall entering Turn 3 in the closing stages.

LASTCAR STATISTICS

*This marked Larson’s second last-place finish in the All-Star Main Event, his first since May 22, 2022, when he crashed after 36 laps at Texas. Car #5 also finished last in the inaugural run of The Winston, when Geoffrey Bodine’s #5 Levi Garrett Chevrolet lost the engine after 14 laps.

THE BOTTOM FIVE

26) #5-Kyle Larson / 134 laps / crash

25) #22-Joey Logano / 137 laps / crash

24) #54-Ty Gibbs / 138 laps / suspension

23) #20-Christopher Bell / 164 laps / handling

22) #45-Tyler Reddick / 168 laps / steering / led 34 laps