Cole Cusumano

OH! My name is Cole Cusumano! Although I reside in Arizona, I still call New York home. In case you couldn’t tell from the last name, I come from an Italian household, so family is everything to me.

True to my heritage, my family sought to make the American Dream a reality by purchasing a restaurant back in 2019. Following a massive and timely renovation, as well as a global pandemic, our small business Amici Pizza has blown up as one of the premier pizzerias in Arizona, courtesy of going viral on TikTok. We’ve hosted Dave Portnoy, players from the Phoenix Suns and even someone from The Bachelor!

When I’m not serving pizza, I’m at the race track providing coverage of the greatest sport in the world — NASCAR! I’ve been professionally covering the sport for nearly 10 years (fully out of pocket, I might add), freelancing for various outlets such as The Arizona Republic, The Arizona Daily Star, Kickin’ the Tires and much more. I also have been doing a NASCAR betting podcast called The Money Stop with my brother going on six years now.

In addition to my love for NASCAR, I am a huge cinephile and music lover — two of my greatest sources of inspiration and escape.

I was a very late bloomer to the racing scene! Living in New York, motorsport isn’t the most popular thing when you have professional teams like the New York Mets (F- the Yankeees), New York Knicks, etc. After moving to Arizona in 2006, my father was invited to his first NASCAR race at Phoenix Raceway in 2008 and was hooked. He thought my brother Steven and I would love it, so he brought home a Jimmie Johnson shirt for him (his favorite color is blue) and a Dale Jr. shirt for me (my favorite color is green). After watching the replay of the race, we fell instantly in love with it, and the rest is history!

I was determined to make NASCAR a career, so I attempted to do so by becoming a mechanic. In high school, I took automotive classes for two years. I took that one step further once I graduated and got my Associate’s Degree in Automotive Technologies from the Toyota T-Ten program. From there I worked as a mechanic for a few years at a dealership, but once I realized that wasn’t my calling and I would never break into NASCAR that way, I went back to college. From there I served at another family friend’s pizzeria before we purchased Amici.

Gateway Community College – Associate’s Degree in Automotive Technologies through the Toyota T-Ten program (2016)

Chandler Gilbert Community College – Associate’s Degree in Fine Arts (2018)

Arizona State University / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication – Bachelor’s Degree in Sports Journalism (2020)

Proudly born and raised in Staten Island, New York! Often referred to as “the forgotten borough,” my hometown has produced talents like the Wu Tang Clan, the Impractical Jokers, Pete Davison, Christina Aguilera and the minds behind the wildly popular “Terrifier” franchise — who also happen to be my cousins! It’s a goal of mine to be one of the names remembered to come out of Staten Island.

I enjoy suffering, so I’m a fan of the New York Mets, Jets, Knicks and Rangers.

If you want to get technical, I’m only seven years old, because I was born on a Leap Year. But I was born in 1996, so do the math.

I’m a cinephile, so this is a tough question, but I do have a definitive answer.

“Jurassic Park” will always be my all-time favorite. I watched this every day as a child and I can recite every line, sound, action — you name it — in my head. Ground-breaking visual effects, perfect score, incredible storytelling, plus dinosaurs and Jeff Goldblum. What else do you need?

I’m also a rabid horror fan, so I can’t end this discussion without mentioning John Carpenter’s “Halloween.” “Rocky” is also a massive source of inspiration for me and I actually was fortunate enough to meet Apollo Creed himself (Carl Weathers) before his passing. I have a signed pair of his iconic stars-and-stripes trunks hanging in my room with close to 100 other autographs.

My teeth falling out or crashing my car.

Any time I get to be at the race track.

Again, being a cinephile, I have a few.

Ever since I saw Anya Taylor-Joy in “The Witch,” I’ve made it a point to watch everything she’s done. Amy Adams is also a tremendous talent — she was on a massive heater back in the 2010s. Maybe a lesser known name, but I’m a huge Kathryn Newton fan! She doesn’t get the credit she deserves as a modern-day “Scream Queen” and all of her films/performances are so fun.

I can’t remember a better feeling than witnessing Bartolo Colon’s home run at Petco Park while sitting with The 7 Line Army. Talk about UNREAL! Covering my first race at Bristol Motor Speedway was also extremely humbling, as is each time covering the championship in Phoenix.

I’m only going to go with ones I witnessed live, so 2008 and on.

Justin Allgaier’s championship performance at Phoenix in 2024 was one of the greatest comebacks in sport’s history — forget just motorsports. Such a long time coming for one of the best guys in NASCAR and just the fashion in which he did it is still hard to comprehend.

Being a Dale Jr. fan, I have a few of those in mind.

The 2014 Daytona 500 is an obvious answer. I also will never forget his win in the 2015 summer Daytona race. Being a late-bloomer to NASCAR, I never really got to experience his dominance on superspeedways and this was just a complete onslaught. I really enjoyed his 2014 win at Martinsville as well, because you could tell how much that one meant to him. Lastly, I wanted to see him race at Talladega before he retired, so my brother and I made the trip to his final start there in 2017. He may not have won, but he had a hell of a race and it was awesome to see him run a Mountain Dew car in person. Another full circle moment in many ways.

Paramore, for sure. Hayley Williams is one of the greatest vocalists of all time and I love how much I can empathize with almost all of their work.

Favorite artists included Billy Joel, Kacey Musgraves, Rezz, Illenium and B.o.B.

Vienna – Billy Joel
Reverie – Illenium
Daydreaming – Paramore
Slow Burn – Kacey Musgraves

I really enjoy making playlists and have well over 20! My most listened to are summer themed, vibey or for working out. Genres include a lot of ’90s alternative, ’80 rock, EDM and hip-hop.