Iowa Speedway welcomed back the NASCAR Xfinity Series in style. Sam Mayer was more than happy to accept a return invitation back into victory lane.
Mayer survived a late overtime restart and a day filled with tire wear issues to take his second win of the 2024 Xfinity Series season. The JR Motorsports driver emerged victorious in Saturday’s (June 15) HyVee Perks 250, the series’ first race at Iowa since 2019. It was the sixth win of Mayer’s NXS career.
“We struggled yesterday, and this Roto-Rooter team went to work,” Mayer said. “Obviously, we overnight making good decisions on this race car… I feel really good. I could do 100 more laps for sure, and with a car like this, it would be a lot of fun… We definitely got a little tight there at the end of the second stage. So, I was a little concerned there, but Mardy [Lindley] said the tires look all good. So, we took care of it, and we did our job. Now we get to celebrate
Mayer beat Riley Herbst to the line by .146 seconds, making the pass on him with seven laps to go. Down the stretch, he successfully defended the lead from Herbst after a wreck from John Hunter Nemechek forced overtime.
Herbst was upset with how Mayer raced him throughout the event. The two raced each other aggressively, running each other up the track for position multiple times throughout the day, ending with Mayer sliding ahead of Herbst in the closing laps and holding him off on the last restart.
Herbst also battled back from damage on the front nose of his car caused by contact with Ross Chastain on pit road during the final round of pit stops.
“It was just frustrating,” Herbst said. “It was an up and down day for sure. I felt like we were ok yesterday, and we got it better. We worked all night. They did a really good job, and we worked our way back up through the field, got some track position, and then the guy who won I mean just absolutely brooms us in [turns] one and two. So, that was frustrating, and then for him to door me down the straightaway before the green-white-checkered, I don’t know. That was a bit frustrating.”
Corey Heim finished third, matching Sam Hunt Racing’s best-ever result and recording his career-best result. Iowa native Sammy Smith and Sheldon Creed crossed the line fourth and fifth, respectively.
Cole Custer, Matt DiBenedetto, Chandler Smith, Chastain and Daniel Dye rounded out the top 10. A seventh for DiBenedetto was a career best in NXS competition.
It was a race defined by survival after Austin Hill and Justin Allgaier lined up on the front row after qualifying was rained out, and with a freshly repaved track, the field found out quickly that tires were going to play a major factor throughout the race as reports quickly came in throughout the field that drivers could feel vibrations coming from the worn out tires.
In fact, the 250-lap race consisted of nine cautions, six of which were caused by blown tires, taking out contenders such as Allgaier, Hill, AJ Allmendinger, Jesse Love, Jeb Burton and, most-importantly, John Hunter Nemechek.
“It just blew out,” Allmendinger said. ” I was a little bit tight, and actually, when I ran the bottom, I was tighter. I thought down there, I was hurting the tire more, but I didn’t expect to have a right front issue. It wasn’t like I was overly tight either.”
” I imagine when me and the [No.] 00 made a little bit of contact because I was trying fill a little hole, maybe it punctured it a little bit,” Love said. “It just started getting tighter and tighter, and then it went off of [turn] four and got it pretty good, so just a flat tire.”
Tires would not be the only issue for drivers in the field as Shane van Gisbergen spun off turn two, collecting Blaine Perkins and Kyle Weatherman on lap 88.
Chandler Smith led the way, winning both stage one and two and leading the most laps with 129 total, but the most dominant driver in the first half of the race got shuffled back on the stage three restart and would not return to fight for the lead for the rest of the race.
From Smith’s misfortune, Nemechek, Mayer, Creed and Hill would emerge as true contenders in the longest green flag run of the day that only lasted 41 laps, ended by Allgaier’s hard hit into turn four on lap 202.
Hill momentarily returned to fight for the win with Nemechek, but instead of his right front tire, his left front tire failed on lap 218, causing heavy damage to the Richard Childress Racing No. 21. The multiple cautions allowed for Herbst to recover from his pit road damage and compete for the win.
Herbst cleared for the lead, and Nemechek and Creed got together fighting for second, causing a tire rub on Nemechek causing his tire to go flat with six to go. However, before final caution of the day, Mayer was able to catch Herbst for the lead, sliding ahead of the Monster Energy Ford and holding the Ford Mustang off in overtime for an incredible win for the Junior Motorsports driver.
Xfinity Iowa Results
The Xfinity Series returns next week at New Hampshire Motor Speedway for the running of Sci Aps 200. Television coverage begins Saturday, June 22 at 3:30 p.m. ET provided by USA Network.
About the author
Wyatt Watson has followed NASCAR closely since 2007. He joined Frontstretchas a journalist in February 2023 after serving in the United States Navy for five years as an Electronic Technician Navigation working on submarines. Wyatt writes breaking NASCAR news and contributes to columns such as Friday Faceoff and 2-Headed Monster. Wyatt also contributes to Frontstretch's social media and serves as an at-track reporter, collecting exclusive content for Frontstretch.
Wyatt Watson can be found on Twitter @WyattGametime
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Tires? Nice work Goodyear!