Sam Mayer, Carson Hocevar win in dramatic late battles

In Wisconsin on Saturday, the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Road America came down to an overtime scramble as Sam Mayer had to hold off Parker Kligerman and Austin Hill to win. Hours later in Virginia, Carson Hocevar got by Ty Majeski in the closing laps to end the Craftsman Truck Series regular season on a high note at Richmond Raceway.

Mayer, a Wisconsinite, tailed his JR Motorsports team-mate Justin Allgaier for much of the day before a massive wreck occurred with four laps remaining; Sammy Smith and A.J. Allmendinger made contact that shot both into the grass before the latter ricocheted off the wall, and Cole Custer was also collected to trigger the caution and set up overtime. Despite leading 42 of 49 laps and winning the first two stages, Allgaier spun and fell to eighteenth.

With Allgaier out of the picture, Mayer squared off with Sage Karam before Kligerman entered the picture. Neither he nor Austin Hill were able to catch Mayer as he pulled away for his maiden Xfinity win.

Like Mayer, Hocevar was not the most dominant driver in the Truck race. Majeski put on a clinic from the pole in Richmond as he led 168 of 250 laps. Even a speeding penalty on pit road for going 50.01 miles per hour (45 mph is the speed limit, but drivers are permitted to go over by five mph at most) was not enough to put him down. Meanwhile, Hocevar’s night started on a sour note when he had to pit with a flat tyre before the race even began.

However, pit strategy placed Hocevar at the front on fresher tyres than Majeski, who was unable to keep him at bay before Hocevar cleared him with four laps to go.

“Our truck was so much faster than everybody else,” said Majeski who settled for second. “Hindsight is always 20/20, obviously maybe should have pitted, but without that speeding penalty we win it staying out too. I’m disappointed. We’ve got to clean up the mistakes and be better, but the good news is we have fast trucks heading into the playoffs.

“You can’t do anything. You’re on 100-and-whatever-lap tyres and he’s on 40. You just don’t have a chance. I felt like our pace was going to be okay, but once guys are on new tyres, there were so many of them, they kept passing me and getting me off the bottom. I was just losing too much lap time to maintain the lead there, so it’s disappointing, but we should be good at IRP.”

Corey Heim finished third to win the regular season championship.

Xfinity race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	5	1	Sam Mayer	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	49	Running
2	17	48	Parker Kligerman	Big Machine Racing Team	Chevrolet	49	Running
3	14	21	Austin Hill	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	49	Running
4	6	24	Sage Karam	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	49	Running
5	4	98	Riley Herbst	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	49	Running
6	13	8	Josh Berry	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	49	Running
7	9	26	Kaz Grala	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	49	Running
8	11	91	Josh Bilicki	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	49	Running
9	1	10	A.J. Allmendinger*	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	49	Running
10	33	9	Brandon Jones	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	49	Running
11	32	11	Daniel Hemric	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	49	Running
12	19	27	Jeb Burton	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	49	Running
13	34	39	Ryan Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	49	Running
14	20	31	Parker Retzlaff	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	49	Running
15	26	6	Brennan Poole	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	49	Running
16	23	78	Anthony Alfredo	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	49	Running
17	25	02	Blaine Perkins	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	49	Running
18	3	7	Justin Allgaier	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	49	Running
19	21	44	Brad Pérez	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	49	Running
20	38	4	Kyle Weatherman	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	49	Running
21	18	92	Josh Williams	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	49	Running
22	29	53	Patrick Emerling	Emerling-Gase Motorsports	Chevrolet	49	Running
23	35	38	Joe Graf Jr.	RSS Racing	Ford	49	Running
24	28	35	Stanton Barrett	Emerling-Gase Motorsports	Toyota	49	Running
25	30	66	Dexter Stacey	MBM Motorsports	Toyota	49	Running
26	12	2	Sheldon Creed	RIchard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	49	Running
27	31	51	Jeremy Clements	Jeremy Clements Racing	Chevrolet	49	Running
28	22	45	Leland Honeyman	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	45	Transmission
29	7	19	Connor Mosack	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	44	Rear Gear
30	2	00	Cole Custer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	41	Accident
31	10	18	Sammy Smith	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	41	Accident
32	27	28	Kyle Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	39	Brakes
33	37	08	Alex Labbé	SS-Green Light Racing	Ford	38	Accident
34	8	20	John Hunter Nemechek	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	31	Accident
35	36	43	Ryan Ellis	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	25	Accident
36	15	25	Brett Moffitt	AM Racing	Ford	23	Hub
37	16	16	Chandler Smith	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	20	Accident

Truck race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	17	42	Carson Hocevar	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	250	Running
2	1	98	Ty Majeski	ThorSport Racing	Ford	250	Running
3	15	38	Zane Smith	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	250	Running
4	12	35	Jake Garcia	McAnally-Hilgemann Racing	Chevrolet	250	Running
5	5	51	Matt Mills	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Chevrolet	250	Running
6	2	11	Corey Heim	TRICON Garage	Toyota	250	Running
7	8	88	Matt Crafton	ThorSport Racing	Ford	250	Running
8	14	2	Nick Sanchez	Rev Racing	Chevrolet	249	Running
9	13	23	Grant Enfinger	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	249	Running
10	3	1	William Sawalich	TRICON Garage	Toyota	249	Running
11	6	19	Christian Eckes	McAnally-Hilgemann Racing	Chevrolet	249	Running
12	4	99	Ben Rhodes	ThorSport Racing	Ford	249	Running
13	21	16	Tyler Ankrum	Hattori Racing Enterprises	Toyota	249	Running
14	19	17	Taylor Gray	TRICON Garage	Toyota	249	Running
15	25	13	Hailie Deegan	ThorSport Racing	Ford	249	Running
16	7	15	Tanner Gray	TRICON Garage	Toyota	249	Running
17	10	25	Matt DiBenedetto	Rackley WAR	Chevrolet	249	Running
18	11	41	Bayley Currey	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	248	Running
19	16	24	Rajah Caruth	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	248	Running
20	24	66	Conner Jones	ThorSport Racing	Ford	248	Running
21	18	43	Daniel Dye	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	248	Running
22	9	4	Chase Purdy	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Chevrolet	248	Running
23	30	56	Timmy Hill	Hill Motorsports	Toyota	248	Running
24	27	9	Colby Howard	CR7 Motorsports	Chevrolet	247	Running
25	20	5	Dean Thompson	TRICON Garage	Toyota	247	Running
26	29	02	Will Rodgers	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	247	Running
27	23	52	Stewart Friesen	Halmar Friesen Racing	Toyota	247	Running
28	22	45	Lawless Alan	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	247	Running
29	26	32	Bret Holmes	Bret Holmes Racing	Chevrolet	247	Running
30	28	30	Ryan Vargas	On Point Motorsports	Toyota	246	Running
31	34	90	Justin Carroll	TC Motorsports	Toyota	245	Running
32	35	22	Christian Rose	AM Racing	Ford	244	Running
33	31	33	Derek Lemke	Reaume Brothers Racing	Ford	243	Running
34	33	20	Mason Massey*	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	242	Running
35	32	12	Spencer Boyd	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	240	Running
36	36	34	Josh Reaume	Reaume Brothers Racing	Ford	239	Running
DNQ		14	Trey Hutchens	Trey Hutchens Racing	Chevrolet
DNQ		46	Memphis Villarreal	G2G Racing	Toyota