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Cole Custer wins Xfinity race at Auto Club Speedway

NASCAR Xfinity Series Production Alliance Group 300

FONTANA, CA - MARCH 16: Cole Custer, driver of the #00 Thompson Pipe/Haas CNC Ford, poses with the trophy in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR Xfinity Series Production Alliance Group 300 at Auto Club Speedway on March 16, 2019 in Fontana, California. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)

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Cole Custer won Saturday’s Xfinity Series race at Auto Club Speedway, beating Kyle Busch for his third career Xfinity win.

Custer, a native of Ladera Ranch, California, led the final 19 laps, scoring his first victory since last fall’s playoff race at Texas Motor Speedway.

“It means a ton,” Custer told Fox Sports 1. “To start the year off with a new crew chief in Mike (Shiplett) and a new engineer in Davin (Restivo), they just did a good job in coming over here, just trying to work through all the things. We’ve been a little frustrated with ourselves, we’ve been wanting to run better than fourth and top five. But today we accomplished that.”

Custer is the first non-Cup competitor to win at ACS since Scott Riggs in April 2002 (23 races).

“Kyle Busch is one of the legends of our sport,” Custer said. “To keep him ... from getting 200 (NASCAR wins) means a lot. I am sure he is probably a little frustrated but we have a great time racing him and hopefully we do it more in the future.”

Busch, who led 98 of 150 laps, finished second after he bounced back from an uncontrolled tire penalty on pit road in the middle of the final stage. That forced him to restart 13th with 33 laps to go. Busch will have to wait at least one more day to earn his 200th national NASCAR series win.

“I just wasn’t fast enough,” Busch said. “At the end there, he (Custer) was really good and really fast and had a good car. They got better throughout the day and got closer to our rear bumper there on that second-to-last run before we had our pit road problems and dropped us back in the pack. Obviously, we were able to rebound, but when you have a fast guy out front and a fast guy in second, they run the same times and they stay the same distance apart. We just weren’t quick enough there at the end to chase them down.”

The top five was completed by Christopher Bell, Tyler Reddick and Chase Briscoe.

Reddick fought back from an unscheduled pit stop for a cut tire on Lap 108 to earn his top five.

Austin Cindric (sixth), Brandon Jones (seventh) and Ryan Preece (eighth) all bounced back from spins to place in the top 10.

STAGE 1 WINNER: Kyle Busch

STAGE 2 WINNER: Kyle Busch

Click here for race results

Click here for the point standings.

WHAT’S NEXT: My Bariatric Solutions 300 at Texas Motor Speedway at 1 p.m. ET on March 30 on Fox Sports 1