A Race of Inches: Sam Mayer Wins NASCAR Xfinity Race By.002 Second

Sam Mayer was victorious Saturday in the Andy's Frozen Custard 400 at Texas Motor Speedway. The JR Motorsports driver has had a tough start to his third Xfinity Series season, crashing out of three of the first four races. Last week at Martinsville, Mayer was one spot shy of the win, finishing behind Justin Algaier.

This week, on the final, Mayer pulled in line with Ryan Sieg and, with his right side tires going down, pulled ahead momentarily. Mayer made the bump, exiting the final corner, and the duo dragged to the line. Mayer beat Sieg by.002 second.

"The amount of adversity that we've had to fight this entire year so far, to come to a mile and a half that, I want to say that I'm good at, but it took a lot. It took every ounce of me to do that today."

Mayer credited his spotter, Kevin Hamlin, for the win. Hamlin told Mayer on the final run that the bottom of three and four was the better line to race, and in the end, those two corners made the difference.

This finish is tied for the second closest in series history. The closest finish was when Tyler Reddick beat Elliott Sadler to the line in the 2018 Daytona PowerShare QQQ 300 by.0004. This was the second photo finish in NASCAR so far this year, with the first coming in the Cup Series race at Atlanta, where Daniel Suarez beat Ryan Blaney and Kyle Busch to the line.

Sieg was dominant in the closing stage of the race. He was shuffled back with the final caution, and, with 22 laps remaining, found his way from 10th to the lead in just four laps. In the end, he was just shy of his first victory in the series.

"It sucks," Sieg said to NASCAR on FOX. "We had a really good car. I got tight and tried to change my line to do different things. I fell behind, and I saw him coming. I was doing all that I could do, and at the end, I was trying to just run him into the wall, trying to just win the race."

Sieg is confident that his win is coming.

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