By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
DARLINGTON, S.C. — Denny Hamlin’s Xfinity Series win at Darlington Raceway has been stripped after the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota failed postrace technical inspection.
Cole Custer is now the winner of the Sport Clips Haircuts VFW 200.
“We get the points, the money, the trophy,” Custer said. “You’re just praying you make it through tech. It’s a way to win so we’ll take it.”
Hamlin’s car was found to be too low in the in the left-front and too high in the right-rear.
The win is Custer’s sixth win of the 2019 season and first at Darlington.
“It’s cool we won and everything but you want to be the first to the start/finish line,” he said. “It’s all an upside to finishing second.”
Custer nearly won the race against Hamlin, as the two fought bumper-to-bumper in the race’s final corner.
And if not for the lapped car of Vinnie Miller interrupting Custer’s attempted pass in Turn 4, Custer believes it would have been a photo finish.
“It definitely messed me up,” he said of Miller. “I don’t know if I would have passed [Hamlin], there was no shot of me clearing him. But I would have gotten next to him and hoepfully he would have made a mistake. It definitely messed me up though. It was frustrating having him there on the last corner.”