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