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Last summer, Sam Mayer was doing media rounds to pump up his Xfinity Series debut with JR Motorsports. He set out on being a record breaker, saying aloud he wanted to become the youngest driver to ever win an Xfinity Series race.
High bar, sure, but Mayer would have had to win one of his first three starts to eclipse Joey Logano’s record of being the youngest driver to win in NASCAR’s second-highest level. It didn’t happen. Until last Saturday at Richmond Raceway — Mayer’s 25th series start — the 18-year-old hadn’t won anything at the Xfinity Series level. Alas, he won the $100,000 Dash 4 Cash bonus and picked up his best career finish of third.
“I have said this ever since I started racing, if you shoot so high and so far out there that you feel like if you can actually get there, it would be one of the craziest things ever that you could be better than Kyle Busch, then you’re better than Kyle Busch,” Mayer said. “But if you don’t quite get there, it’s still really impressive and you met a lot of expectations and goals for other people.”
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Admittedly, Mayer hit the reset button after the 2021 season. Beginning last June at Pocono Raceway, he ran the final 18 races of the season for JR Motorsports. In that time, there were flashes of brilliance and other moments where he needed to take a step back.
It was all a learning experience.
“Sam doesn’t lack speed at all; he never has and probably will never be accused of that,” said Taylor Moyer, Mayer’s crew chief. “He’s naturally fast, but what we lacked was seat time, experience, the gamesmanship and the mental aspect of racing.
“Nobody ever questioned last year that he wasn’t fast; we weren’t wrecking, running 32nd. We were racing in the top 10, but we were tearing up a lot of race cars and not getting the finishes we deserved.”
Entering the 2022 season, Mayer knew he needed to put complete races together. He didn’t want a repeat of his results from last year, which included six DNFs and an average finish south of 20th.
Because of that, once Mayer returned to North Carolina after Christmas break, he began becoming more prepared for what was to come having recent experience in the Xfinity Series.
“I worked 10 times harder than last year with note-taking and watching videos,” Mayer said. “I did everything the exact same way I did last year, just way more.”
But even with the frustration, Mayer never lost confidence. He did, however, need to learn race craft, which Moyer believes is 70% of a driver’s success, with the other 30% being directed toward talent.
“We have worked 90% between the ears of understanding race situations, the bigger picture and risk versus reward in each situation,” Moyer said. “We’ve been extremely fast off the truck all year and now we’re starting to finish some races and put them together.”
The No. 1 team is coming off consecutive top-five finishes for the first time in Mayer’s career. Last week at Richmond, he made a late charge on the long run. One week earlier at Circuit of The Americas, Mayer won his first career stage and finished fifth.
And the scary thing is, the team is starting to build some momentum.
“I came into this year with a lot of confidence and a lot of speed,” Mayer said. “We’ve had a lot of speed the last few races; we’ve been up front and finished top five in just about every stage thus far. We just have to manage staying out of other people’s trouble and being there at the end.”
A former racer himself and Mayer’s current spotter, Brandon McReynolds, has a birds-eye view of the driver’s progression this year.
Despite it taking some time, Mayer is starting to execute.
“He’s learning these race tracks in a heavier car in comparison to the ARCA car,” McReynolds said, “helping him see what other drivers with a lot of experience are doing and seeing that he has the capability and talent to run with it. He has the speed, and I think what you’re seeing is him starting to put these full races together.”
Like last year when Moyer was crew chief for Josh Berry, he believes the No. 1 bunch is beginning to turn the corner. Once Berry began figuring out the cars, he was a consistent frontrunner.
“I think we’re just hitting our stride,” Moyer said. “There’s the potential to peak sooner rather than later. We just hadn’t put a full race together and we’re just now beginning to do that. It feels good and I think we’re 7/10, with 10/10 being perfectly executed races in which we win. We won’t settle until we hit that.”
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