Sam Mayer wins in wild Watkins Glen finish

Ty Gibbs was looking to win a NASCAR Xfinity Series road course race for the eighth time and second in a row on Saturday at Watkins Glen International, and things shaped up to be that way for 84 laps. Unfortunately, the race was 86 laps long.

Gibbs dominated the race from the pole as he led 70 laps and claimed both stages. A wreck that began when Justin Allgaier spun in front of the field with five laps remaining set up overtime, with Gibbs on the front row alongside Austin Hill. Although Gibbs had the early advantage, Sam Mayer tried to move his move on the inside entering turn one, resulting in contact that spun Gibbs.

Sheldon Creed, barely hanging on to the final playoff spot and seeking a win to clinch his place, snuck by to take the lead. Mayer chased down Creed before passing him shortly before the final lap and cruising the rest of the way. Interestingly, Mayer and Creed respectively finished 1–2 in the #1 and #2 cars, which last occurred at the Xfinity level in 1990 when Mark Martin and L.D. Ottinger did so at Myrtle Beach; Martin and Ottinger also accomplished it at Bristol the year prior.

The win is Mayer’s second of his Xfinity career, the first coming at another road course in Road America three rounds prior; he also finished second to Gibbs on the Indianapolis infield circuit. While Mayer stated the bump with Gibbs was incidental, the two had scuffled at Martinsville in April 2022 after overtime contact there.

“I wheel-hopped it,” began Mayer. “That’s unfortunate and I feel bad for doing that. Obviously, you don’t want to take out any car like that. Just trying to get another win in the Xfinity Series. I’ve got a lot of catching up to do. I was in there, I put my nose in there and that’s part of it.

“That’s an accident, but I think everyone can agree it’s okay for an Xfinity Series regular to win this race.”

Gibbs, a Cup Series driver, sarcastically said one could “call it a racing incident” if a driver was to “race out of desperation like that and you wheel hop and clean the leader out.” With the spin, he finished seventeenth.

Although the main victim of Mayer’s move, Gibbs was not the only driver dissatisfied with the winner. Austin Hill restarted second alongside Gibbs before running wide in an attempt to avoid the spin, only to be spun himself amid a cloud of smoke. After finishing fourteenth, Hill said Mayer could “kiss my ass.”

Eleven drivers failed to finish the race, the most for an Xfinity event at Watkins Glen since twelve bowed out of the 2019 edition. Among the retirements were Max McLaughlin in his Xfinity début after crashing on lap 47 and Kyle Busch, the victim of a transmission failure.

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	5	1	Sam Mayer	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	86	Running
2	13	2	Sheldon Creed	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	86	Running
3	14	48	Parker Kligerman	Big Machine Racing Team	Chevrolet	86	Running
4	17	91	Ross Chastain*	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	86	Running
5	19	24	Connor Mosack	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	86	Running
6	12	20	John Hunter Nemechek	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	86	Running
7	4	00	Cole Custer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	86	Running
8	18	16	Chandler Smith	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	86	Running
9	2	17	Alex Bowman*	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	86	Running
10	25	27	Jeb Burton	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	86	Running
11	24	9	Brandon Jones	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	86	Running
12	32	6	Brennan Poole	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	86	Running
13	33	4	Kyle Weatherman	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	86	Running
14	11	21	Austin Hill	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	86	Running
15	21	45	Sage Karam	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	86	Running
16	3	7	Justin Allgaier	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	86	Running
17	1	19	Ty Gibbs*	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	86	Running
18	9	18	Sammy Smith	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	86	Running
19	37	28	Kyle Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	86	Running
20	7	8	Josh Berry	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	86	Running
21	26	39	Ryan Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	86	Running
22	36	38	Joe Graf Jr.	RSS Racing	Ford	85	Running
23	6	11	Daniel Hemric	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	84	Running
24	22	08	Alex Labbé	SS-Green Light Racing	Chevrolet	83	Running
25	28	7	Josh Bilicki	JR Motorsports	Ford	83	Running
26	29	31	Parker Retzlaff #	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	82	Running
27	8	10	Kyle Busch*	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	78	Transmission
28	15	26	Kaz Grala	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	78	Accident
29	20	25	Brett Moffitt	AM Racing	Ford	66	Suspension
30	35	43	Ryan Ellis	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	65	Running
31	27	78	Anthony Alfredo	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	61	Axle
32	38	35	Stanton Barrett	Emerling-Gase Motorsports	Toyota	56	Suspension
33	23	44	Stefan Parsons	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	45	Brakes
34	31	96	Max McLaughlin	FRS Racing	Chevrolet	43	Accident
35	10	98	Riley Herbst	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	37	Suspension
36	34	92	Josh Williams	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	23	Accident
37	16	51	Jeremy Clements	Jeremy Clements Racing	Chevrolet	21	Suspension
38	30	02	Blaine Perkins	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	11	Transmission
DNQ		53	Patrick Emerling	Emerling-Gase Motorsports	Chevrolet
DNQ		74	Casey Carden*	CHK Racing	Chevrolet