Race 27 of 33: Alsco Uniforms 302 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Track Specs: 1.5-mile tri-oval / 201 laps
Weather: Fair; 89 degrees
Race Winner: Josh Berry Mayer’s Finish: 34th
Making his first NASCAR Xfinity Series start at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Sam Mayer, driver of the No. 8 Big Machine Record Label/Carly Pearce Chevrolet, started from the 11th position and was racing inside the top 15 before a multicar incident in Turn 1 collected the 18-year-old just past the mid-way point of Stage One on Saturday afternoon. The subsequent damage from the incident proved to be too severe to continue, forcing Mayer to retire early from the 302-mile event in Las Vegas. The young JR Motorsports driver was ultimately credited with a 34th-place finish.
Stage One Finish: 34th
Mayer took the green flag for the 201-lap race from the 11th position after the starting order was set by NASCAR’s mathematical formula earlier in the week. Once underway, the driver of No. 8 Chevrolet settled into a top-15 running position until the scheduled competition caution waved on lap 25. Electing to stay on track during the yellow, Mayer lined up for the ensuing restart from the outside of row nine after utilizing NASCAR’s new choose rule. Following the green flag, a gaggle of cars just ahead of Mayer went five-wide heading into Turn 1, leading to contact between two drivers and triggering a multicar incident. Left with nowhere to go, Mayer tried to miss the spinning cars ahead before getting knocked into the outside retaining wall and badly damaged the nose of the No. 8 Chevrolet. Bringing the car back to pit road to survey the damage, it was determined that the resulting damage was too severe for Mayer to continue.
In the end, the Franklin, Wis. native was relegated to a 34th-place finish.
Sam Mayer, driver No. 8 Big Machine Record Label/Carly Pearce Chevrolet
“We were in the middle of Stage One so I thought people would still be taking it easy and surviving until the end, but, unfortunately that didn’t happen. They tried to take it five-wide into Turn 1 and it just didn’t work out and I had nowhere to go. I hate that this happened to our Big Machine Record Label/Carly Pearce Chevrolet. We will move on to Talladega next weekend and be ready to get after it.”
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