Ryan Sieg comes within 0.002 seconds of his first career NASCAR Xfinity Series win. (Photo: Cody Porter | The Podium Finish)
FORT WORTH, Texas — Ryan Sieg was in the midst of a tough start to the 2024 season with only one top-five finish and an average finish of 16th place.
However, that changed for Sieg and the No. 39 team on Saturday as he was part of the second closest runner-up finish in Xfinity Series history, finishing 0.002 seconds behind Sam Mayer for the Andy’s Frozen Custard 300 victory at Texas Motor Speedway.
Sieg showed he was a car to watch from the onset, running third in practice with a pace of 0.187 seconds over 22 laps around the 1.5-mile track. The Tucker, Georgia, native lost a bit of pace during qualifying and started the race 14th after logging a qualifying time of 29.518 seconds.
By Lap 5 of the race, Sieg showed the same blistering speed he had in practice as he worked up to the 10th position. On a Lap 17 restart, Sieg moved into the seventh position behind Jesse Love. Sieg maintained his track position until he was passed by Brandon Jones with nine laps to go in the first stage, leaving the RSS Racing driver with an eighth-place stage finish.
After pit stops, Sieg restarted 13th to begin the second stage. In the opening laps of the 45-lap stage, Sieg was able to work his way back up to 10th by the time there was under 10 laps to go in the stage and drove to fifth in the final five laps of the stage.
Sieg held onto his track position the first laps of Stage 3 but fell back to seventh with 90 laps to go in the race. The 36-year-old maintained this position until green flag pit stops were completed with just over 30 laps to go before the checkered flag.
Following a caution with 28 laps remaining, Sieg restarted 10th following more pit stops. He rocketed to fourth place in just a lap and passed Riley Herbst for third place with 20 laps to go. On the next lap, Sieg passed Jones and battled Sam Mayer for the lead.
Ryan Sieg drives to the front at Texas Motor Speedway (Photo: Dylan Nadwodny | The Podium Finish)
Sieg cleanly passed Mayer with 18 laps before the race was final before a caution was called. While Sieg maintained the lead on the restart, with two laps to go, Mayer closed the gap.
On the final lap, Mayer worked around Sieg while battling for the lead. As Sieg battled Mayer to the line, he ultimately came up short by a single inch.
Although Sieg tied his career best finish, second, on Saturday, it did not come as any consolation as he lost the closest NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.
“Just tough,” Sieg said after the race. “I was doing all that I could do. I wish. we were on the other side of that .002. It is what it is. I think we are inn the Dash For Cash now, so that is a good positive. We ran up front where we needed to be. We were able to make gains on it. I feel like there is more to come. We just have to put a full race together. Ugh, we were so close. That just sucks.”
“The first emotion is definitely disappointment. We had it. We were leading at the end. It is disappointing but you have to look at the other side of it and move on. We have to move on to Talladega. I thought we had a good shot right there. We got up front but we just got too tight. I was doing all I could do. I was changing lines, changing brakes, changing everything. It was just that close. I saw him coming. I was doing all I could do. In the end I was just trying to run him into the wall to win the race. We were just so close. I have finished second before, and it really sucks.”
