April 13, 2025
Cole Custer of Haas Factory Team will start 33rd for this week's race at Bristol Motor Speedway, the Food City 500. This will be the lowest starting position of Custer's Cup career at Bristol. In four previous starts at the Tennessee short track, Custer's best finish was eighth, his only top-10 finish at the site back in 2022. Custer has yet to score a top-20 finish this season but did earn positive place differential four times through the first eight races. In practice, Custer ranked 25th in overall lap averages and fourth in 10 consecutive lap averages. Considering his equipment and season-wide performance, Custer may not bring top results. Still, he is one of the more playable DFS options available, primarily due to his low salary of $5,900 on DraftKings combined with his incredible upside.
--Sean Engel - RotoBallerSource: DriverAverages.com
April 6, 2025
Haas Factory Team driver Cole Custer will start 31st for this week's Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway after qualifying. Custer's starting position for this week's race matches his lowest-ever in his Cup career at the South Carolina track. In seven Cup starts at Darlington, Custer has three top-20 finishes, with his last one being scored during September 2022. Custer is also a former Xfinity Series winner at Darlington, where he has six top-5 finishes in seven starts. Through seven races so far this season, Custer has a best finish of 21st and acquired positive Place Differential in three different events. In practice, Custer ranked 33rd in overall lap averages while ranking 28th in 15 consecutive lap averages. While he may have plenty of potential upside from his starting position, Custer's practice speeds are not as great as others in his price range ($5,800 on DraftKings), and his overall performance this season makes him mainly a cash game play at best.
--Sean Engel - RotoBallerSource: DriverAverages.com
March 30, 2025
Don't overlook Cole Custer at Martinsville Speedway this weekend. Although the No. 41 team has gotten off to a very rocky start in 2025, "The Paperclip" is one of Custer's best tracks on the circuit--and he has speed this weekend. In six career starts at Martinsville, Custer has finished 23rd or better five times, and most recently ended up finishing 14th in his last start here (in the fall race of 2022). This weekend, Custer was fast in practice, ranking second-fastest in 30-lap average while posting the fifth-fastest single lap. He qualified 22nd for this weekend's Cook Out 400. As mentioned before, Custer is off to a rough start this year--he has yet to finish inside the top 20--but he's got a better-than-usual chance of having a good run this weekend. At just $6,300 on DraftKings, though, you have to take a chance with Custer and his Place Differential upside. If he has anywhere near the speed he had in practice during the race itself, we could easily see him in the optimal DFS lineup on Sunday.
--Jordan McAbeeSource: Driver Averages
March 23, 2025
Cole Custer was something of a Homestead master in the NASCAR Xfinity Series with a win in 2017, two poles, and three second-place finishes, but his Cup Series performances at the track have left little to be desired as he has finished between 22nd and 24th in all three of his previous starts there for Stewart-Haas Racing. Now at the rebranded Haas Factory Team, his cars have been arguably even slower as aside from briefly fighting for the lead at the end of the Daytona 500, he's been a complete non-factor. Unlike his fellow 2020 rookies Christopher Bell and Tyler Reddick, it doesn't seem like Custer's Xfinity Series success has really translated at the Cup level, especially with the Next Gen chassis. His past history at the Cup level suggests he won't finish any better than he started, so he isn't very valuable for DFS play.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
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