Bill McAnally Racing drivers Cole Custer and Nick Drake look to close out the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East season with a strong finish as the circuit heads to Dover (Delaware) International Speedway for its season finale on Friday.
The Drive Sober 150 is part of a big NASCAR weekend that will also feature the NASCAR Nationwide Series and the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at the high-banked, one-mile track known as the Monster Mile.
Custer – a 16-year-old from Ladera Ranch, California – has competed in the No. 00 NAPA AUTO PARTS/HAAS Automation entry this year in select events in the East and West divisions of the K&N Pro Series. He won the K&N West season opener at Phoenix International Raceway in February and scored a K&N East victory at Richmond (Virginia) International Raceway in April.
A member of the NASCAR Next program, Custer has also raced a limited schedule this season in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series – where with a win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Saturday he became the youngest winner in NASCAR national series history. In June, he became the youngest driver in that series to win a pole. In addition to the victory and two poles, he has five top-10 finishes in seven starts in the truck series.
In the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East, Custer has three wins, two poles, seven top-five and eight top-10 finishes in 20 career starts. Last year at Dover, Custer qualified fifth and ran in the lead pack throughout the race before finishing 14th.
Drake, who is wrapping up his rookie season in the series, will be making his first visit to Dover.
“Everyone says Dover is a ton of fun,” said the 18-year-old from Mooresville, North Carolina. “I’m looking forward to it.
“Cole did good there last year,” Drake said. “Our setup should be pretty close. So, when we get there we should be good.”
Drake is coming off fifth-place finish at Greenville earlier this month. It was one of four top-five and eight top-10 finishes he has registered, along with one pole, in 15 K&N East starts this year. He had a career-best series finish of second in the K&N East-West combination race at Iowa Speedway in May.
Drake, who made the transition this year from racing open-wheel sprint cars on dirt tracks to competing in stock cars, is second in the challenge for the Sunoco Rookie of the Year Award and ninth in a tight points battle among the top 10 drivers in the championship standings.
The Drive Sober 150, which will be televised on FOX Sports 1 on Oct. 4 at 10 a.m. ET, caps off a 16-race schedule for the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East. It marks the 14th series visit to Dover. Brett Moffitt, with back-to-back victories in 2009 and 2010, is the only driver with multiple series wins there.
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