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NASCAR Xfinity Iowa: Sam Mayer holds off Riley Herbst in OT for win

Mayer and his No. 1 JR Motorsports team were among the slowest cars in Friday’s practice, but you couldn’t tell in the race as he seemed to get stronger as the race went on.

Mayer ran down Riley Herbst to take the lead with seven of the original 250 laps remaining, but the race went into overtime due to a late caution when John Hunter Nemechek hit the wall with a cut tire following a run-in with his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Sheldon Creed.

On the overtime restart, Mayer and Herbst lined up on the front row, but Mayer quickly cleared him for the lead exiting Turn 2 and held him off by 0.146 seconds at the checkered flag.

After a tough start to the 2024 season, Mayer now has a pair of victories this year and earned the sixth of his career.

“We weren’t very good yesterday, but this team went to work and obviously we did pretty good overnight,” Mayer said. “We got a little bit tight there at the end of the second stage and I was a little concerned there (about tires) but my crew said they looked good.

“We took care of it and did our job and now we get to celebrate.”

Corey Heim finished a career-best third, Sammy Smith was fourth and Creed ended up fifth.

Completing the top 10 were Cole Custer, Matt DiBenedetto, Chandler Smith, Ross Chastain and Daniel Dye.

Stage 1

Chandler Smith claimed the Stage 1 win under caution following a wreck by Jeb Burton with three laps remaining. Creed was second, Mayer was third, Justin Allgaier fourth and Sammy Smith rounded out the top five.

A.J. Allmendinger had a right-front tire go down, shot up the track and slammed into the Turn 4 wall on lap 35. The extensive damage to Allmendinger’s No. 16 Chevrolet knocked him out of the race.

Stage 2

Chandler Smith took the Stage 2 win under caution as Jesse Love had a tire go down and slammed the wall on the final lap. Mayer was second, Chastain third, Heim fourth and Sammy Smith ended up fifth.

Three-time Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen saw an early end to his race when he got loose and turned into Blaine Perkins and both hit the Turn 2 wall on lap 87.

Stage 3

During the break between Stages 2 and 3, most of the lead lap cars pit but Josh Williams stayed out and inherited the lead. During the stops, Chastain and Riley Herbst collided while exiting pit road.

Williams was quickly passed by Ryan Sieg for the lead when the race resumed with 90 laps remaining.

Justin Allgaier, who was running in the top 10, blew a tire and hit the wall in Turn 4 on lap 202 which sent everyone down pit road for new tires. Nemechek was first off pit road and led Creed and Mayer on the restart with 40 laps remaining.

Austin Hill, who had made his way up to second but put on older tires on his most recent pit stop, hit the Turn 1 wall after he had a left-front tire go down. That set up a restart with 26 laps to go and Nemechek out front of Custer and Creed.

The engine let go on Brennan Poole’s car on the frontstretch which brought out the eighth caution of the race and set up a restart with 13 laps remaining and Nemechek ahead of Mayer.

With seven laps to go, Mayer got around Herbst to move back into the lead.

CLA DRIVER # MANUFACTURER LAPS TIME INTERVAL PITS POINTS
1
S. MayerJR MOTORSPORTS
1 Chevrolet 253

2:36'27.612

  6 57
2 R. HerbstSTEWART-HAAS RACING 98 Ford 253

+0.146

2:36'27.758

0.146 8 38
3
C. HeimSAM HUNT RACING
26 Toyota 253

+0.385

2:36'27.997

0.239 7  
4
S. SmithJR MOTORSPORTS
8 Chevrolet 253

+0.675

2:36'28.287

0.290 7 45
5 S. CreedJOE GIBBS RACING 18 Toyota 253

+0.913

2:36'28.525

0.238 7 46
6 C. CusterSTEWART-HAAS RACING 00 Ford 253

+0.961

2:36'28.573

0.048 7 38
7 M. DiBenedettoRSS RACING 38 Ford 253

+1.880

2:36'29.492

0.919 8 30
8
C. SmithJOE GIBBS RACING
81 Toyota 253

+2.002

2:36'29.614

0.122 7 49
9 R. ChastainDGM RACING 92 Chevrolet 253

+2.003

2:36'29.615

0.001 7  
10
D. DyeKAULIG RACING
10 Chevrolet 253

+2.026

2:36'29.638

0.023 7  
11 P. KligermanBIG MACHINE RACING TEAM 48 Chevrolet 253

+2.305

2:36'29.917

0.279 8 26
12 R. SiegRSS RACING 39 Ford 253

+3.204

2:36'30.816

0.899 10 25
13
L. HoneymanYOUNG'S MOTORSPORTS
42 Chevrolet 253

+3.835

2:36'31.447

0.631 7 24
14 R. EllisALPHA PRIME RACING 43 Chevrolet 253

+3.999

2:36'31.611

0.164 6 23
15
A. AlfredoOUR MOTORSPORTS
5 Chevrolet 253

+4.041

2:36'31.653

0.042 9 22
16 J. GaseJOEY GASE MOTORSPORTS 35 Chevrolet 253

+5.024

2:36'32.636

0.983 8 21
17 D. StarrSS-GREEN LIGHT RACING 14 Chevrolet 253

+6.374

2:36'33.986

1.350 8 20
18 B. MoffittJOE GIBBS RACING 19 Toyota 252

+1 Lap

2:36'30.119

1 Lap 9  
19
K. SiegRSS RACING
28 Ford 252

+1 Lap

2:36'31.090

0.971 8 18
20 J. WilliamsKAULIG RACING 11 Chevrolet 252

+1 Lap

2:36'31.192

0.102 9 17
21 J. ClementsJEREMY CLEMENTS RACING 51 Chevrolet 252

+1 Lap

2:36'32.915

1.723 9 16
22
D. CramJD MOTORSPORTS
4 Chevrolet 252

+1 Lap

2:36'33.928

1.013 10 15
23
E. PatrickSS-GREEN LIGHT RACING
07 Chevrolet 252

+1 Lap

2:36'45.884

11.956 7 14
24 J. BurtonJORDAN ANDERSON RACING 27 Chevrolet 250

+3 Laps

2:36'33.388

2 Laps 14 13
25 H. DeeganAM RACING 15 Ford 250

+3 Laps

2:36'33.584

0.196 8 12
26 G. SmithleyJD MOTORSPORTS 6 Chevrolet 250

+3 Laps

2:36'34.885

1.301 9 11
27 J. NemechekJOE GIBBS RACING 20 Toyota 244

+9 Laps

2:28'15.954

6 Laps 6  
28 B. PooleALPHA PRIME RACING 44 Chevrolet 218

+35 Laps

2:16'58.712

26 Laps 8 9
29 A. HillRICHARD CHILDRESS RACING 21 Chevrolet 217

+36 Laps

2:07'17.180

1 Lap 7 9
30 J. AllgaierJR MOTORSPORTS 7 Chevrolet 200

+53 Laps

1:54'08.829

17 Laps 5 18
31
J. LoveRICHARD CHILDRESS RACING
2 Chevrolet 149

+104 Laps

1:26'51.969

51 Laps 5 7
32
P. RetzlaffJORDAN ANDERSON RACING
31 Chevrolet 103

+150 Laps

1:01'14.781

46 Laps 6 5
33 K. WeathermanDGM RACING 91 Chevrolet 87

+166 Laps

48'14.478

16 Laps 6 4
34 S. van GisbergenKAULIG RACING 97 Chevrolet 86

+167 Laps

47'30.629

1 Lap 5 3
35
B. PerkinsRSS RACING
29 Ford 86

+167 Laps

47'30.768

0.139 8 2
36 B. JonesJR MOTORSPORTS 9 Chevrolet 38

+215 Laps

19'40.660

48 Laps 4 1
37 A. AllmendingerKAULIG RACING 16 Chevrolet 32

+221 Laps

12'52.502

6 Laps 2 1
38
G. ReenJOEY GASE MOTORSPORTS
53 Chevrolet 20

+233 Laps

10'51.426

12 Laps 4 1
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