Cole Custer wins Xfinity Series pole award for The Loop 121 Chicago Street Race

After the red flag was brought out as Sheldon Creed wrecked, Cole Custer held on and won the pole for The Loop 121 Chicago Street Race. Later today at 5:00 PM EST, Custer is going to lead the field to green. This is the first-ever street course pole in NASCAR national series history.

Those Stewart-Haas Racing Cup Series drivers will be bugging Cole Custer after this. He was able to navigate the streets of the Windy City better than any other driver in the Xfinity Series. After his win at Portland, Custer might be looking at another win. This time in the first street course race ever for NASCAR.

Custer will have a great view of the city as he leads the Xfinity Series race later today. This is his fourth pole award of the season.

Takin’ it to the streets!@ColeCuster will lead the field to green in the inaugural Chicago Street Course race! pic.twitter.com/8Scsm30cqq

— Stewart-Haas Racing (@StewartHaasRcng) July 1, 2023

For Cole Custer, this is a big deal. He’s coming into the Xfinity Series his year after a stint in the Cup Series. SHR opted for Ryan Preece instead of Custer for the biggest stage in the sport. However, as of late, Custer has caught on and is now winning races and pole awards.

Last week at Nashville, Custer was the fastest in qualifying. He follows that up with a great performance on the Chicago Street Race. The No. 00 has started to come alive recently and we might be seeing him build his championship run.

Sheldon Creed, John Hunter Nemechek, Conor Mosack, and Austin Hill round out the top-5 in qualifying.

Sheldon Creed was the only major casualty during the practice and qualifying sessions. He was trying to beat out Custer’s time and lost control heading into the sweeping turn. It was a tough end to the qualifying round for Creed and his team who will now have to go to a backup car.

Cole Custer wins Xfinity Series pole in Chicago

In practice, we saw Cole Custer and other drivers quickly figure things out. There weren’t many issues during the session. That session was interesting to watch as they got started on rain tires and later switched to slicks. One step at a time, the field gained more confidence.

We learned in practice that these drivers can adapt to this track quickly and they did. Even in the Xfinity Series with younger drivers, not as experienced, we saw good racing. Drivers were able to make passes, drivers were able to shave time off their laps. It was a solid session.

That is likely why we got such a good qualifying session as well. Drivers like Cole Custer and John Hunter Nemechek are going to be hard to beat in this race. However, you also have drivers like Justin Marks in the field. He isn’t a series regular but he was the fastest in practice and will be a threat to win the Chicago Street Race for the Xfinity Series.

Marks missed out on the final qualifying session, but don’t doubt his ability to move up through the field and make this race interesting if he gets the opportunity.