Sam Mayer had a really good race going on Sunday night in the Blue Cross NC 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Unfortunately, the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Chase contender ended up with nothing to show for the speed he had all race long.
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After a late-race run-in with Jeremy Clements, Mayer was just looking to hold on with scuffed tires on the final run of the race. It wasn’t meant to be, as Mayer would suffer more contact with competitors, which would result in a cut tire in the closing laps.
After all of the late-race drama, Mayer would be credited with a 23rd-place finish, one lap off the pace.
“We were really good. The Cardiac Chevy from HFT was really fast. Yeah, just didn’t get the finish we deserved,” Mayer said to Frontstretch on pit road following the race.
Mayer, who reportedly slammed the top of his car with his fists as he was climbing out of the No. 41 Chevrolet on pit road following the race, was frustrated for multiple reasons. His shot at a good finish went out the window due to contact from another driver, and with it, likely went any hope he had at winning the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series championship.
After the race, Mayer was in no mood to mince words.
“Yeah, everyone in this series sucks. There’s nobody worth anything past 10th place. It’s atrocious,” Mayer exclaimed. “I hate it. It’s annoying. Got to be better. I don’t know.”
Mayer continued, “Yeah, everyone just crashes at the end of these races, and it just doesn’t make sense to me. I mean, we can’t go another 10 laps without getting into each other. It was a clean race, all race, and at the end of these races, everyone just loses their minds, and it’s just pathetic.”
While he wasn’t mathematically eliminated from championship contention on Sunday night, Mayer’s path to a title became harder with the finish outside of the top-20.
With four races left in the season, Mayer finds himself sixth in the championship standings, and he sits 59 points behind championship leader Sheldon Creed. Fortunately for Mayer, Creed didn’t have an incredible night on Sunday, or the gap could have really become insurmountable. Still, Mayer can’t afford any slip-ups the rest of the way, and he’ll have to leapfrog five other championship-caliber drivers in the standings over the next four weeks if he wants to hoist the championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
It’ll be a tall task.
