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

Truck race results