Sam Mayer steals first Xfinity Series win at Road America
Sam Mayer took a dramatic double-overtime victory in Saturday‘s Road America 180 at the Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, road course. The 20-year-old from Franklin, Wisconsin, claimed his first career NASCAR Xfinity Series victory, climbed onto his driver‘s side window and pulled apart his fire suit like Superman to a happy and familiar crowd.
Mayer‘s win in the No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet made him the 14th different driver to take the trophy at Road America in as many NASCAR Xfinity Series races there. He is the sixth different driver to earn his first career win at the 4.048-mile track and the fourth different driver to claim his first series trophy in 2023.
“It was just about getting track position,‘‘ Mayer said of the frantic second overtime start that featured door-to-door racing among the top four cars. “We got it there at the end, I lost it for a second and then all hell broke loose there at the end, and we ended up on top,‘‘ Mayer said. “This team, it‘s so special to get that first win, that monkey off your back. It feels so good.”
Mayer led only the final two laps, jolting to the lead after JR Motorsports teammate Justin Allgaier and Sage Karam jostled for the top spot on the penultimate lap. Allgaier, who won the opening two stages and led 42 laps, spun in Turn 8 after Mayer and Sage Karam had passed him. Karam momentarily led with Parker Kligerman second, but Karam went wide in Turn 13 and Kligerman the same in Turn 14, allowing Mayer to take the lead coming to the white flag en route to the win.
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Kligerman finished second ahead of Karam, Austin Hill and Riley Herbst. Josh Berry, Kaz Grala, Josh Bilicki, AJ Allmendinger and Brandon Jones completed the top 10. Allgaier finished 18th.
“It was a great race all around,‘‘ said Karam, who earned his first career top five in his seventh start of the season. “The last restart was very aggressive. I just had to get to the lead and had a good move on Allgaier, it was really aggressive and got three-wide. I can‘t thank Sam Hunt Racing enough.”
The race was first sent into NASCAR Overtime when Connor Mosack’s No. 19 laid fluid on the race track from an expired motor before stopping on track unable to continue at Lap 45.
A pileup with four laps remaining in regulation took out several top contenders in Turn 5. Under braking, Berry’s No. 8 Chevrolet broke traction and contacted Sammy Smith, spinning him left into Allmendinger’s door and sending the two spinning. In their slide, they collected second-place driver Cole Custer, destroying the rear suspension on the No. 00 Ford, which won two road races earlier this season.
Kaulig Racing’s Allmendinger, who set an Xfinity Series track record in qualifying en route to the pole position on Friday, voiced concerns about his brakes as well as electrical issues all afternoon. His teammate, however, faced the most extreme problem for the team all day.
Chandler Smith appeared to suffer a brake failure entering Turn 1 at Lap 21. Upon realizing he had no braking power, Smith veered left to the outside wall to avoid a head-on impact at the end of the frontstretch. The hit resulted in damage to his No. 16 Chevrolet, but Smith walked from the car under his own power and was subsequently evaluated and released from the infield care center.
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“I was definitely having some brake fade throughout the run, but I didn‘t think I was abusing them by any means to make them fail,” Smith said. “I was going up the hill on the front straight and I heard something snap and I felt something come off the car and the whole front nose just dropped and when that happened, I was like, ‘What in the world was was that?’
“I went to pump the brakes but there was nothing there,” he added, “I was just trying to scrub speed at that point.”
Alex Labbe appeared to incur a similar issue at Lap 39, when his No. 08 car suddenly began smoking on entry to Turn 1. Labbe steered right in attempt to slow his vehicle but the car carried straight into the sand trap, contacting the Turn 1 tire barrier nose-first. Labbe climbed from the car and laid on the ground briefly before walking to the AMR safety vehicle. He was later evaluated and released from the infield care center.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series returns to competition next Saturday in the Cabo Wabo 250 at Michigan International Speedway (3:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Note: Post-race inspection in the Xfinity Series garage at Road America concluded without issue, confirming Mayer as the race winner.
NASCAR Wire Service contributed to this report.
