One Xfinity NASCAR Ford Still In Playoffs Post-Roval: Video

A single NASCAR Ford driver will carry The Blue Oval’s Xfinity Series title hopes through the Round of 8. That’s Cole Custer, whose No. 00 Ford Mustang Dark Horse cleared the Round of 12 in the 2024 Playoffs after finishing 13^th at the Charlotte Roval on October 12^th, 2024.

Custer started 16^th and battled hard to keep his position throughout the race. In fact, he was the highest-finishing NASCAR Ford on the hybrid road course-slash-oval track; the next-best Blue Oval team was that of Ryan Sieg, who finished 17^th in the No. 28 Mustang.

“That definitely was not pretty, whatsoever,” Custer said. “We did a great job the first two races of this round getting ourselves where we needed to in the points. All year we put ourselves where we needed to in the points and it ended up where we didn’t need our best day today. I’m definitely frustrated. I felt like road courses were our strong suit last year and we’re really struggling with them this year. I am a little confused. We have some good tracks for us coming up, so we are looking forward to those.”

Riley Herbst, driver of the No. 98 NASCAR Ford, was eliminated from the Playoffs after finishing 32^th. His Mustang suffered a drive shaft issue that forced him to retire early after 57 laps. Understandably, he was frustrated with the outcome.

“It wasn’t what we wanted. It sucks,” Herbst said. “This race was frustrating for me. The Roval has never been a good track for me, but I thought we would be okay to advance if we just survived… Still, we struggled with the handling of our car all day. We almost stayed in it until the end, but it just wasn’t enough. There’s still four races left to try and get a win though with this No. 98 team.”

Sam Mayer, driver of the No. 1 Chevy Camaro SS, won the race after a controversial Overtime attempt snuffed victory from Parker Kligerman’s No. 48 Camaro.

# – Rookie
i – Points ineligible
* – Part-time driver
P – Playoffs eligible