Mayer Dominates ROVAL, Locks Into Round of 8 With Victory

(Photo: Jared Bokanoski | The Podium Finish)

CONCORD, N.C. — Sam Mayer had one option Saturday afternoon at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL.

Win.

Leading 50 of 67 laps, Mayer dominated his way to a victory in the NASCAR Xfinity Series Drive for the Cure 250, punching his ticket into the Round of 8.

“Our car was unbeatable all day,” Mayer said in his post-race press conference. “We had to have a clutch win today, and we did. It saved our season.”

Mayer fell into a must-win situation after a catastrophic start to the playoffs. Three consecutive races with finishes of 35th or worse, including a Lap 1 wreck two weeks ago at Texas Motor Speedway, put the 20-year-old in a near-insurmountable hole ahead of the ROVAL. The JR Motorsports driver had to have a perfect day.

It started in qualifying Saturday morning when Mayer won the pole after qualifying got shortened to just one round after an on-track incident. He led the majority of each of the first two stages before short-pitting to preserve track position.

Mayer was tracking toward a runaway victory before a caution came out on Lap 57 for debris on the frontstretch chicane. Crew chief Mardy Lindley called the No. 1 machine to pit road for service, but a hang-up on the right front led to Mayer surrendering the lead. After multiple cars stayed out, Mayer restarted on the third row.

Jeb Burton was one of those who remained out with an attempt to steal a win for a Round of 8 berth. On the restart, he overdrove Turn 1 and got into Justin Allgaier, forcing him into the wall and ending his day.

The field bunched up again — this time with Mayer and Cole Custer out in front. Custer had the original lead, but with four laps to go, Mayer passed him and drove away for his third road course win in the last four tries.

Mayer takes the checkered flag at the ROVAL. (Photo: Jared Bokanoski | The Podium Finish)

“I had confidence on the road course, it’s just a matter of kind of getting the fine tuning down and getting myself in the mindset of how these Xfinity cars race,” Mayer said. “I finally figured that out. The first couple of road races the last year and this year obviously weren’t perfect, but we really kind of honed in on what we needed to do. Mardy [Lindley] made a really perfect race car today and I drove a good race.

“We kind of went into this weekend like we knew we had to win and get in — there’s really no other way. We just used the confidence of road courses in general to push us to go win.”

Cole Custer finished second, falling short of his third road course victory of the season. He already punched his ticket to the Round of 8 on points but would have liked additional playoff points as a cushion.

“We just really struggled on the short runs,” Custer said. “It’s frustrating as a driver when you’re so close to a win like that. There are definitely things that I’m going to replay in my head from those last laps. I could have done something different, but our No. 00 Haas Automation team did a great job all day. JT (Jonathan Toney, crew chief) and all of the guys got the car better with each pit stop to where we could compete for the win. We just needed a little bit more.”

Mayer’s teammate, Josh Berry, finished third but failed to advance as he also needed to win. He got eliminated along with Burton, Daniel Hemric and Parker Kligerman. Hemric fell just two points short of advancing over Sheldon Creed.

Stage 1 Top 10

1. Justin Allgaier
2. Daniel Hemric
3. Sheldon Creed
4. Parker Kligerman
5. Austin Hill
6. Chandler Smith
7. Sammy Smith
8. Sam Mayer
9. Jeb Burton
10. Josh Bilicki

Stage 2 Top 10

1. John Hunter Nemechek
2. Daniel Hemric
3. Parker Kligerman
4. Sheldon Creed
5. Alex Labbe
6. Sammy Smith
7. Sam Mayer
8. Chandler Smith
9. Josh Bilicki
10. Stefan Parsons

Drive For The Cure 250 Result

Playoff Standings (After Reset