DOVER, Del. — It wasn’t Miles the Monster who bit Sam Mayer on Saturday in the A-GAME 200 from Dover Motor Speedway, but rather pit road hiccups over the course of 200 laps.
Even after a tire falling off from the lead and a pit road speeding penalty, Mayer persevered for a fifth-place finish, his fourth top five in the last five events.
“Roller coaster of a day, to say the least,” Mayer said. “You’re successful in racing when you’re disappointed with a top five. We passed, I don’t know, like 50 cars or something like that today, felt like 100. We definitely worked our tails off for this top five.”
JR Motorsports led the way for all but 61 circuits on Saturday, as Josh Berry (race winner) and Justin Allgaier (runner-up) paced the field for the majority of the race, with Mayer doing so for 18 laps and earning the Stage 1 victory, his second playoff point of the season.
Noah Gragson (fourth) also won the $100,000 Dash 4 Cash bonus, his series-record fifth time doing so and first of 2022.
“Obviously the company had a really good day,” Mayer said. “But sucks being on the bottom of the totem pole.”
Dover is a track Mayer has had immense success at throughout his brief career, earning a K&N Pro Series East and ARCA Menards Series East victory in 2019 and 2020, respectively. It also mirrors Bristol Motor Speedway, where he’s won countless K&N/ARCA events and earned his lone Camping World Truck Series victory in 2020.
“Nine times out of 10, the track is really high grip, you’re gassing it wide open and not saving tires at all. That’s pretty much what my driving style is, gassing it up and go,” he explained. “Any track like that, I’m usually pretty good at. We just gotta get a couple spots better and be there with everybody else.”
Mayer was admittedly a bit overconfident heading into the race weekend, given his prior results at the Monster Mile. And running top five practice times and earning his first career Xfinity Series…
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