During the press conference after the Xfinity Series finale, Stewart Haas Racing co-owner, Tony Stewart was asked about his driver Cole Custer, the recently crowned Xfinity champion, and how he had transitioned across divisions so effortlessly. While other drivers might have a problem adjusting the move from Cup to Xfinity, Custer seemed to masterfully interweave himself in the series without much effort.
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Based on that observation, the primary question posed to Stewart was if Custer was attempting to fight his way back to the Cup Series team in a nutshell.
Stewart responded, “Yeah, it absolutely is. It was a calculated decision to move him back, and it was for him to gain confidence. Like J.T. said, his leadership is growing through this year and as his confidence has grown, the leadership side is coming into play, as well.”
“Yeah, I think it’s a valid question and a valid question that, yeah, when a driver makes it to the big show and then has to step back one series, there’s a lot of things that could go wrong. But there was a reason we made that decision.”
“It’s character-building. And it’s like I told him tonight before we came into the media center, I said, This is why we did what we did, and this is what you’re doing, the steps that you’re making and the progress you’ve made this year is exactly what we were hoping for.”
Stewart also believes that Custer will end up in the Cup Series once again at a certain point in time. He appreciated the hard work the Xfinity champion has been putting at the shop and called him a great leader.
The Denny Hamlin take regarding Noah Gragson which Tony Stewart echoed
Meanwhile, a similar thought had been put out by 23XI Racing team owner, Denny Hamlin while speaking about Noah Gragson. The former Cup Series driver was ejected from the top division after a controversy erupted over his actions on social media.
But aside from all that, his driving and overall performance at that Cup level was also torrid compared to other rookies. Hence, speaking about Gragson, Hamlin mentioned that often drivers in the lower categories jump to the Cup Series too early and this causes a detriment for them since they kind of become invisible.
Hamlin added, “Certainly my advice when you are trying to make it up the ranks is make sure you are succeeding regularly at the level you are at before you start taking a jump.”
He claimed that being in an inferior car in the Cup Series would tarnish the reputation of whatever skills the driver might possess. Hence, Hamlin believes that it would be better for young talents to remain at the Xfinity level racing in competitive cars for much longer than what they do now.
