Dover Visit Ends On Sour Note For Custer, Drake

• NASCAR K&N Pro Series East Wraps Up 2014 Season

DOVER, Del. (Sept. 26, 2014) – Cole Custer and Nick Drake both experienced disappointment as the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East wrapped up its 2014 season at Dover (Delaware) International Speedway on Friday.

Both Bill McAnally Racing drivers encountered trouble just before the midway point of the Drive Sober 150 at the track known as the Monster Mile.

Custer, who had charged from 14th to seventh in the No. 00 NAPA AUTO PARTS/HAAS Automation entry, began falling back with a right rear tire going flat. Then, contact with another car left him with a flat left rear tire and forced him to pit, during which he lost two laps. He went on to finish 18th, three laps down.

Drake – in his first visit to the high-banked one-mile track – had started 13th and worked his way up to eighth, driving the No. 15 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota. His race ended, however, when he spun and hit the inside wall on Lap 70 – leaving him to finish 28th.

Austin Hill won the race for a second consecutive year. Ben Rhodes, who had already clinched the series championship, led the race before fading to a 15th-place finish due to mechanical trouble.

Custer, 16, of Ladera Ranch, California was making his seventh series start in a season in which he has competed in select events in the East and West divisions of the K&N Pro Series. A member of the NASCAR Next program, he is also racing a limited schedule this year in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series – where with a win a week ago he became the youngest winner in NASCAR national series history.

Drake was capping off his rookie season in the series after making the transition from racing open-wheel sprint cars on dirt. The 18-year-old from Mooresville, North Carolina finished 10th in the overall championship standings with one pole, four top-five and eight top-10 finishes in 16 series starts. His career-best series finish of second came in May in the East-West combination race at Iowa Speedway.

The Drive Sober 150, which marked the 14th series event at Dover International Speedway, will be televised on FOX Sports 1 on Oct. 4 at 10 a.m. ET.