MOORESVILLE. N.C. (Aug. 2, 2023) — Sam Mayer’s triumph last Saturday in the NASCAR Xfinity Series event at his home track at Road America gained him entry into a club that previously had been shared by just two drivers.
The 20-year-old Mayer won his first race for JR Motorsports on March 17, 2018 at Hickory (N.C.) Motor Speedway, driving the team’s No. 9 Chevrolet in a NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series Late Model race, and Saturday’s victory in the NXS made the young Wisconsin native just the third driver to have won a race in the Late Model and a JRM NXS Camaro.
The other two?
William Byron and Josh Berry.
That’s a pretty select group, given that Byron won the 2017 NASCAR Xfinity Series championship and has won eight races in the NASCAR Cup Series for Hendrick Motorsports, including four this season, and Berry owns a NASCAR Weekly Series national title, three Solid Rock Carriers CARS Tour crowns and the 2019 ValleyStar Credit Union 300 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. He also has five NXS victories himself, all with JR Motorsports. He will join the NASCAR Cup Series full-time next season.
Mayer was Berry’s teammate in 2018 in a two-car effort, winning four of his 24 starts with eight top-five and 18 top-10 finishes. By contrast, Byron won twice in the 2014 and 2015 seasons, amassing 27 starts with 16 top-five and 19 top-10 results.
Berry won 95 times with JRM beginning in 2010, including a 27-win season in 2020 to earn the NASCAR Weekly Series national championship.
Mayer was intrigued with joining the exclusive club.
“That’s pretty cool,” he said Tuesday at JRM, the day on which the victory celebration was held for his Road America win. “It’s surprising that the list is really that small, because this company has had so many drivers come through here and have great success. It’s so cool to be on that list, especially now that I’m in the NASCAR Xfinity Series with so much pressure to do well. It’s cool to take some of that pressure off with a win like this.”
Following his victory, Mayer said he celebrated on Saturday and Sunday, but was back at work on Monday.
“I’m back in it, back in the grind,” he said. “It starts right back on Monday; there are no days off. You can always be better on the next one.”
Asked what he felt crossing under the checkered flag, Mayer broke out in a huge grin.
“My mind kind of went blank,” he said. “It’s really hard to explain. Pure joy, pure relief and just trying to soak it all in at once. There’s so much to it…it seemed like it took forever on the cool-down lap, but I took my time and enjoyed it.”
The late-race nature of his taking the lead was a blur, he said.
“Everyone was kind of running as hard as they could and a couple of them overstepped. I took advantage of it. Once I got out front, it was kind of smooth sailing from there. Don’t run off track, don’t make mistakes and you’ll be good. Getting the lead was super fortunate, because everyone was racing hard out front.”
For Mayer, the win capped a journey he began in 2018.
“It was really cool to do it like that, to have the story wrap up like it did by winning at home,” he said. “Moving down to North Carolina a couple of years ago just to have the chance to win in the Xfinity Series, and I did it at home.”