RIDGEWAY, Va. — Sam Mayer‘s seventh-place finish at Martinsville Speedway on Saturday night (Oct. 25) wasn’t enough to advance him to the Championship 4.
But that’s not the big story surrounding the Haas Factory Team driver. Instead, it’s the feud between he and Jeb Burton and the constant trading paint that went on throughout the race and even carried on to after the checkered flag had flown.
“He’s a punk, and I think everybody knows it,” Burton said.
“That brother does not have the it factor,” Mayer countered. “He has the shit factor, and it’s just part of it.”
Mayer’s disdain for Burton actually started a week prior at Talladega Superspeedway when he was caught up in a wreck triggered by the No. 27 getting into Brandon Jones.
“He caused a 20-car pileup at Talladega, which put us in the spot we were in going into today, so it was his fault to begin with,” Mayer said. “Him left-hooking the [No.] 20 car [Jones] in the middle of the trioval of Talladega is just an absolutely silly thing to have happen.”
As a result of that crash, Mayer was credited with a 38th-place DNF and sat 22 points below the Championship 4 cut line entering Martinsville. He ultimately missed the cut by just eight points, so a clean day at Talladega would’ve had Mayer racing for an Xfinity title next week at Phoenix Raceway. That set the stage for Saturday’s first altercation between Burton and Mayer.
Burton stayed out and restarted on the front row when several of the leaders pitted midway through stage one. Mayer lined up right behind Burton and blasted the rear of the No. 27 going into turn 1.
“I think Sam was mad that last week he got taken out in an accident at Talladega, and he was acting like a child, like Sam is,” Burton said. “We’re on old tires at the end of stage one, I believe, and he shipped me out of the way. I think we all saw that — I was on the front row — for no reason.”
The move sent Burton out of the groove, and he lost several spots as a result. The Virginia native’s temper was engaged.
“Tell the [No.] 41 that he’s done when I get to him,” Burton told his team on the radio. “F–k him his championship bullshit. He’s done.”
It took the remainder of the race, but eventually, Burton’s and Mayer’s paths collided again. For the last couple restarts, they restarted around each other, even sharing a row at some points. They went side-by-side with minimal contact.
But then overtime happened, and Burton moved Mayer out of the to beat him out for sixth in the final rundown.
“He just can’t take no for an answer, and a guy with a purple spoiler raced him for something huge, moved him out of the way and went on and was faster than him in the end,” Mayer said. “And as soon as he got back to me, he gave it the beans and freaking tried to wreck me three corners in a row.
“Thank God I have enough car control to where I can hold onto it and not wreck. He has no respect for someone racing for something bigger than what he is, and I mean, what is he? He’s like 35th in points, and I don’t know what he’s trying to do.”
Burton explained that he “didn’t wreck Mayer, just moved him.”
“I moved him at the end for a spot because I was still pissed off at what he did,” Burton said. “Because when he moved me, I went back to 20th and it really almost ruined our day because we got off strategy. That was frustrating, so that’s why I moved him back.”
The battle around the cut line was close all night, but the one spot lost to Burton didn’t impact if Mayer advanced or not. And when asked if it was about keeping Mayer out of the championship battle, Burton refuted it.
“I didn’t care if he needed the point or what,” Burton said. “I could give two shits about Sam Mayer. … The way he acts, he’s a punk, and I think everybody knows it.”
The race was over, but the action between the two cars was just heating up. On the cool-down lap, Mayer went after Burton and sent the No. 27 spinning hard into the outside wall. Mayer pounded the outside wall himself after the contact, showing how hard he shipped his car in after Burton.
“At the end of the race, after the checkered, he destroyed our car and wrecked us,” Burton said. “Hopefully, NASCAR does something, because I mean he literally right-reared me into the outside wall. I hate it for my guys to tear up a car.”
Mayer said he made that move because it was a “principle thing.”
“He’s raced everybody in the playoffs like — he’s the worst person to race around in the entire garage, and he has a reputation of being over his head every single week, and this was a prime example of it,” Mayer said.
Frontstretch asked Mayer if he thought he would get a penalty for the move, to which he said he wouldn’t because it’s a “self-policing thing.”
Burton didn’t get a chance to talk to Mayer but yearned for the opportunity.
“Oh, I would love to talk to him,” Burton said. “I would love, but it wouldn’t be much talking right now. When it matters the most for him, he’s in a really good car, it’s not gonna work out very well for him.”
When told about that, Mayer replied with, “That sounds great to me, dude. Let’s have some fun.”
One person that did give Mayer his piece of mind afterward was Jordan Anderson, Burton’s car owner. Anderson told Frontstretch he didn’t have a problem with the racing itself, but he didn’t like Mayer junking his racecar after the race was over and that he thought Mayer was better than that.
“I just hope NASCAR looks at it,” Anderson said.
When asked about the Anderson conversation, Mayer showed remorse, if only for a moment.
“In all honesty, I feel so bad for Jordan,” Mayer said. “I regret my move after the race. Jordan’s an awesome guy. He’s worked his tail off to get to where he is. … I hate that I destroyed one of his racecars tonight, but his driver destroyed 20 last week.”
Michael Massie joined Frontstretch in 2017 and has served as the Content Director since 2020.
Massie, a Richmond, Va., native, has covered NASCAR, IndyCar, SRX and the CARS Tour. Outside of motorsports, the Virginia Tech grad and Green Bay Packers minority owner can be seen cheering on his beloved Hokies and Packers.