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Sam Mayer spins out Ty Gibbs, takes Xfinity race at Watkins Glen

andrew legare, elmira star-gazette
·6 min read
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Overtime chaos punctuated Saturday's NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Watkins Glen International as Sam Mayer emerged with a victory after moving leader Ty Gibbs out of his way.

Mayer spun out Gibbs, who led 70 of the 86 laps, in Turn 1 of the final restart with two laps to go and held off Sheldon Creed by .909 of a second to capture the Shriners Children's 200 at The Glen for his second career Xfinity victory in the JR Motorsports No. 1 Chevrolet.

Parker Kligerman, Ross Chastain and Connor Mosack rounded out the top five.

More: Pole-sitter Denny Hamlin and 9 other drivers who could win Go Bowling at The Glen

Mayer: 'That's an accident'

Sam Mayer, driver of the No. 1 Accelerate Pros Talent Chevrolet, celebrates after winning the NASCAR Xfinity Series Shriners Children's 200 at The Glen at Watkins Glen International on August 19, 2023 in Watkins Glen, New York.
Sam Mayer, driver of the No. 1 Accelerate Pros Talent Chevrolet, celebrates after winning the NASCAR Xfinity Series Shriners Children's 200 at The Glen at Watkins Glen International on August 19, 2023 in Watkins Glen, New York.

Moments earlier, Mayer hinted over the radio at payback for the manner in which Gibbs raced him following a restart that pushed Gibbs from third place into the lead. Gibbs ended up 17th.

Mayer reiterated during his press conference there was no intent to take out Gibbs' No. 19 Toyota.

"A tough deal. Overdrove the corner trying to get to the inside and wheel-hopped and scraped into him," Mayer said. "Obviously as a race-car driver I wouldn’t appreciate that and I don’t appreciate doing that to people. … It was just a mistake, one of those deals. He’s obviously upset and I would be too."

Mayer added earlier, "That's an accident, but I think everyone can agree it's OK for an Xfinity Series regular to win this race," referring to Gibbs' status as a full-time driver in the Cup Series for his grandfather's Joe Gibbs Racing team.

Gibbs: 'It's part of life'

NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Ty Gibbs (19) races during the Shriners Children’s 200 at Watkins Glen International on Aug. 19, 2023.
NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Ty Gibbs (19) races during the Shriners Children’s 200 at Watkins Glen International on Aug. 19, 2023.

Gibbs was asked about the possibility of having a discussion with Mayer to dissect the incident.

"I don’t know how much of a conversation you can really have with him in that situation," Gibbs said. "We’ve been kind of growing up around racing each other. I think he has more starts than I do and that was his second win. Congratulations to him on his second win. I definitely wish I could have got my 13th there."

Added Gibbs of the finish:

"It’s part of life and it’s part of racing. You just get over it and when stuff like that happens – desperate moves like that happen – it’s just part of it and you’ve just got to keep going. We had a great car today. I appreciate all the work from my guys back at the shop."

Austin Hill, who was running second during the last restart, was also caught up in the Gibbs wipeout and ended up finishing 14th.

"I know (Hill) was upset. He put me in the grass after the checkered," Mayer said.

Win No. 2 for Mayer

Sam Mayer, driver of the No. 1 Accelerate Pros Talent Chevrolet, celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Xfinity Series Shriners Children's 200 at The Glen at Watkins Glen International on August 19, 2023 in Watkins Glen, New York.
Sam Mayer, driver of the No. 1 Accelerate Pros Talent Chevrolet, celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Xfinity Series Shriners Children's 200 at The Glen at Watkins Glen International on August 19, 2023 in Watkins Glen, New York.

Mayer's second Xfinity victory came in a span of a few weeks after he broke through at Road America in his home state of Wisconsin on July 29.

"We earned this one for sure," he said of Sunday's triumph. "Just trying to get another win in the Xfinity Series. I've got a lot of catching up to do. I put my nose in there and that's part of it. Fenders are fenders."

Mayer, 20, is the son of former IndyCar Series driver Scott Mayer.

More: NASCAR Go Bowling at The Glen 2023 starting lineup

Gibbs' dominance turned to disappointment

Ty Gibbs, driver of the No. 19 He Gets Us Toyota, leads the field during the NASCAR Xfinity Series Shriners Children's 200 at The Glen at Watkins Glen International on August 19, 2023 in Watkins Glen, New York.
Ty Gibbs, driver of the No. 19 He Gets Us Toyota, leads the field during the NASCAR Xfinity Series Shriners Children's 200 at The Glen at Watkins Glen International on August 19, 2023 in Watkins Glen, New York.

Gibbs was pitching NASCAR's equivalent of a perfect game before the finish. He earned the pole position earlier in the day, then won the first two stages at laps 20 and 40.

With a scheduled 10 laps to go, Gibbs came in for a splash of fuel after leading by more than 15 seconds. As Gibbs raced back to the front pack, Parker Retzlaff went into the gravel in Turn 6 and Mayer held the lead on the restart with four laps left. Gibbs went from third to first before another caution came out after Cole Custer made contact with Justin Allgaier coming out of the Inner Loop.

Gibbs and Mayer made contact while racing side-by-side and Mayer scraped the guardrail as Gibbs overtook him.

"It's just part of the really aggressive racing that we see nowadays," Mayer said.

Gibbs, who is in a battle to make the 16-driver playoffs in the Cup Series, was coming off an Xfinity triumph last week at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course.

Sam Mayer, driver of the No. 1 Accelerate Pros Talent Chevrolet, drives during the NASCAR Xfinity Series Shriners Children's 200 at The Glen at Watkins Glen International on August 19, 2023 in Watkins Glen, New York.
Sam Mayer, driver of the No. 1 Accelerate Pros Talent Chevrolet, drives during the NASCAR Xfinity Series Shriners Children's 200 at The Glen at Watkins Glen International on August 19, 2023 in Watkins Glen, New York.

Shriners Children's 200 Results

(Start position in parentheses)

1. (5) Sam Mayer, Chevrolet, 86 laps, 53 points.

2. (13) Sheldon Creed, Chevrolet, 86, 41.

3. (14) Parker Kligerman, Chevrolet, 86, 36.

4. (17) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 86, 0.

5. (19) Connor Mosack, Toyota, 86, 32.

6. (12) John H. Nemechek, Toyota, 86, 39.

7. (4) Cole Custer, Ford, 86, 38.

8. (18) Chandler Smith, Chevrolet, 86, 29.

9. (2) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 86, 0.

10. (25) Jeb Burton, Chevrolet, 86, 27.

11. (24) Brandon Jones, Chevrolet, 86, 26.

12. (32) Brennan Poole, Chevrolet, 86, 25.

13. (33) Kyle Weatherman, Chevrolet, 86, 24.

14. (11) Austin Hill, Chevrolet, 86, 37.

15. (21) Sage Karam, Chevrolet, 86, 22.

16. (3) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 86, 37.

17. (1) Ty Gibbs, Toyota, 86, 0.

18. (9) Sammy Smith, Toyota, 86, 19.

19. (37) Kyle Sieg, Ford, 86, 18.

20. (7) Josh Berry, Chevrolet, 86, 28.

21. (26) Ryan Sieg, Ford, 86, 16.

22. (36) Joe Graf Jr, Ford, 85, 15.

23. (6) Daniel Hemric, Chevrolet, 84, 14.

24. (22) Alex Labbe, Chevrolet, 83, 13.

25. (28) Josh Bilicki, Ford, 83, 12.

26. (29) Parker Retzlaff, Chevrolet, 82, 11.

27. (8) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, transmission, 78, 0.

28. (15) Kaz Grala, Toyota, accident, 78, 9.

29. (20) Brett Moffitt, Ford, suspension, 66, 8.

30. (35) Ryan Ellis, Chevrolet, 65, 7.

31. (27) Anthony Alfredo, Chevrolet, axle, 61, 6.

32. (38) Stanton Barrett, Toyota, suspension, 56, 5.

33. (23) Stefan Parsons, Chevrolet, brakes, 45, 4.

34. (31) Max McLaughlin, Chevrolet, accident, 43, 3.

35. (10) Riley Herbst, Ford, suspension, 37, 5.

36. (34) Josh Williams, Chevrolet, accident, 23, 1.

37. (16) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, suspension, 21, 1.

38. (30) Blaine Perkins, Chevrolet, transmission, 11, 1.

Race Statistics

Average Speed of Race Winner: 86.851 mph.

Time of Race: 2 hours, 25 minutes, 33 seconds.

Margin of Victory: .909 seconds.

Caution Flags: 5 for 18 laps.

Lead Changes: 9 among 6 drivers.

Lap Leaders: T.Gibbs 0-21; J.Allgaier 22; A.Bowman 23-26; T.Gibbs 27-47; C.Custer 48; K.Weatherman 49-50; T.Gibbs 51-72; S.Mayer 73-78; T.Gibbs 79-84; S.Mayer 85-86

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Led, Laps Led): T.Gibbs, 4 times for 70 laps; S.Mayer, 2 times for 8 laps; A.Bowman, 1 time for 4 laps; K.Weatherman, 1 time for 2 laps; C.Custer, 1 time for 1 lap; J.Allgaier, 1 time for 1 lap.

Top 16 in Points: 1. A. Hill, 849; 2. J. Nemechek, 838; 3. J. Allgaier, 815; 4. C. Custer, 737; 5. J. Berry, 685; 6. S. Mayer, 682; 7. C. Smith, 622; 8. D. Hemric, 621; 9. R. Herbst, 605; 10. S. Creed, 588; 11. P. Kligerman, 571; 12. S. Smith, 567; 13. B. Jones, 523; 14. J. Burton, 521; 15. B. Moffitt, 493; 16. K. Grala, 435.

Follow Andrew Legare on Twitter: @SGAndrewLegare. You can also reach him at alegare@gannett.com. To get unlimited access to the latest news, please subscribe or activate your digital account today

This article originally appeared on Elmira Star-Gazette: Sam Mayer won the Shriners Children's 200 at The Glen Xfinity race