Getty Tony Stewart and Cole Custer enjoy pre-race ceremonies at Homestead-Miami.
Stewart-Haas Racing driver Cole Custer will head to Nashville Superspeedway on Father’s Day weekend for the first Cup Race at the concrete oval. He will partner with sponsor Dixie Vodka for a paint scheme that highlights Hall of Famer Tony Stewart. The No. 41 SHR Ford Mustang will promote a new canned cocktail, Tony’s Tea.
The race team posted the first look at the new scheme on social media. The No. 41 is primarily white with yellow accents, including Custer’s door number and the Dixie Vodka logo on the hood. There are small caricatures of Stewart’s head on the door to advertise Tony’s Tea.
The guys and gals @DixieVodka got the hook up for the drink of the summer with these ready to drink cocktails!
Can’t wait to go crush some of these babies on the lake👌
The canned drink, created in honor of the Hall of Fame driver-turned-owner, features a combination of iced tea and lemonade. Dixie Vodka spiked the canned drink with its Southern Vodka to give it the special Stewart flair. This canned cocktail is one of four currently available, but it’s the only one featuring the team owner’s visage.
NASCAR Drivers Teased Stewart About Alcohol After His Final Race
Following the 2016 championship race, the 16 playoff drivers sat down together for NASCAR’s After the Lap in Las Vegas. They joined hosts Rutledge Wood and Guy Fieri for an entertaining conversation about the season and Jimmie Johnson’s seventh championship. Though they first shared a bottle of Tequila.
The moment started when Fieri asked Johnson where he had stashed the alcohol, prompting him to go backstage. The celebrity chef then passed around the tequila as Johnson, Kurt Busch, Jamie McMurray, Martin Truex Jr., and Kyle Busch all took pulls. However, Stewart waved Fieri over after watching his peers and took the biggest drink of all.
Kyle Larson and Austin Dillon had the opportunity to drink from the bottle, but they declined while discussing their rough nights in Las Vegas. Kyle responded by teasing Stewart about how “it takes a while” to build up a tolerance.
The jokes continued throughout the After the Lap sitdown, with Johnson and other drivers saying that Stewart was “feeling the effects” of the tequila. Though they clarified that the teasing was all in good fun.
Custer Will Now Showcase Tony’s Tea While Fighting for Points
GettyCole Custer races at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway will mark the 56th Cup Series race in Custer’s young career. He became a full-time starter during the 2020 season, making the playoff after winning at Kentucky. He also walked away with Rookie of the Year honors.
Custer has struggled during the 2021 season while joining the revamped Stewart-Haas lineup. He currently sits 27th in points, 102 behind the playoff cutoff line. His most recent points-paying outing was 20th in the road course race at Sonoma.
Custer will now have an opportunity to make positive strides at the 1.33-mile concrete oval outside of Nashville. This race is one of the few on the 2021 schedule that will feature practice and qualifying sessions, giving the No. 41 team time to make adjustments prior to the green flag waves. And while the second-year starter does not have previous race experience at Nashville like some of his peers, he has conducted tests at the oval.
“I’ve never raced there, I’ve only tested there. It was a little bit before my time when they raced there,” Custer said about Nashville, per Speedway Media. “It was so long ago, it’s really hard to remember. I think one thing you’ll see is a lot of changes in the track through the course of the weekend with all three series there, and the fact we get to practice and qualify.
“Being a concrete track, the rubber is going to build up and you’ll be able to maybe move your line around a little bit. I think that’s going to be one of the biggest things. It’s an interesting track with how both the frontstretch and backstretch are curved, how you kind of raise up and go into a hill in turn one. It’s an interesting racetrack and I think it’ll be cool to go there.”
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