Despite carrying a road course average finish of just 18.9, Cole Custer sees no reason to turn his back on Mexico City next year. While the trip drew sharp criticism from fans over safety concerns, many inside the NASCAR garage, including Custer, walked away with a far different perspective.
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Rolling into Pocono with momentum after securing his first top-10 of the season — an eighth-place finish in Mexico — the Haas Factory Team driver praised the weekend as a win across the board. He credited the result to a competitive car, sharp strategy, and flawless execution from his pit crew, calling it a step in the right direction for his camp.
Custer didn’t beat around the bush when speaking about the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez layout: “I thought the track raced really well. It had some really good passing zones with Turn one, Turn four, Turn 11, Turn 12, so it’s a racy track. There’s fall-off in the cars. It’s not an easy place to get around. I thought the track was awesome, so I wouldn’t mind going back.”
He acknowledged the logistical hurdles teams faced, noting, “It is logistically hard at times, we found that out as a team this week with our flights getting cancelled, but I feel like the second time around everything would be easier. I wouldn’t mind going back.”
Now in his first full-time Next Gen campaign since 2022, Custer noted how impressed he was by the handling of the cars upon his return. Still, with 16 races in the books and an average finish of 24.38, the hunt for a breakthrough top-five remains unfinished.
Custer describes his experience of driving through the Mexico stadium
Although drivers like Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott, and Christopher Bell had already scoped out the stadium layout during their media visit to Mexico and shared glimpses of what to expect, the full experience still managed to catch the field off guard. The awe was unmistakable once the rest of the garage set foot inside the iconic venue.
Custer, too, found himself taken aback. “It was cool. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a setup that was legitimately, I think it used to be a baseball stadium, and now you have a racetrack running through it, so it was pretty awesome,” he said, after absorbing the sight.
He added, “I’ve never been a part of something like that, where it was so tailored around the fans and how they encapsulate the whole area. It was almost like you’re in Bristol, but a road course. It was a pretty cool dynamic.”
As he heads into Pocono, a track where he made his mark with his first ARCA Menards Series win in 2015, Custer looks to build on that history. With seven Cup Series starts and an average finish of 23.3 at the Tricky Triangle, he now eyes his first top-10 finish at the Pennsylvania tri-oval.
