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California native Cole Custer, 16, didn’t expect to make NASCAR history

Cole Custer, 16, reacts after winning the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series UNOH 175 on Saturday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
(Jonathan Ferrey / Getty Images)
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After winning the NASCAR truck race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Saturday, Cole Custer and his family had dinner at a nearby restaurant in Loudon, N.H.

“That was pretty much it” as far as celebrating, said Custer, a native of Ladera Ranch, Calif. “I can’t really do much at my age.”

His age is 16, which is why Custer’s victory made NASCAR history. Custer became the youngest driver to win a race in one of NASCAR’s three national series. The others, for stock cars, are its premier Sprint Cup Series and second-tier Nationwide Series.

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This was only the seventh race for Custer in NASCAR’s Camping World Truck Series. He won the pole position in his No. 00 Chevrolet truck for Saturday’s race “so I knew we were going to have speed,” he said in an interview.

Custer said he also previously had run well at New Hampshire Motor Speedway driving in stock-car racing’s minor leagues, “so I wasn’t surprised when we were the fastest truck there.”

But even Custer acknowledged that “I didn’t expect really to win. But I thought I could.” And the victory wasn’t a fluke. Custer led 148 of the race’s 175 laps.

Custer, who now splits his time between Ladera Ranch and the Charlotte suburb of Mooresville, N.C., is the son of Joe Custer, an executive with Stewart-Haas Racing. That’s the race team whose Cup series drivers are team co-owner Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch and Danica Patrick.

The younger Custer hopes to move up to the Nationwide and Cup series as well one day, but first he has to turn 18. That’s the series’ minimum age for drivers.

The truck series also has an 18-year-old minimum age for drivers on tracks longer than 1.25 miles, where speeds are highest. But it’s age 16 for tracks shorter than that, and New Hampshire Motor Speedway is a 1.058-mile oval.

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