AJ Allmendinger locked himself into the Round of Eight this past Saturday with a razor-thin win over Sam Mayer at Talladega Superspeedway in Saturday’s (Oct. 1) Sparks 300.
Landon Cassill, Ryan Sieg and Josh Berry filed in behind the pair of Chevys, but it was undoubtedly Allmendinger and Mayer that stole the show. Allmendinger made a last-second move to the middle lane to take Mayer on the outside and cross the line only inches ahead of the budding JRM protege.
Allmendinger had led four times coming to the white flag in superspeedway races up until Saturday, but had never managed a single win. He put that drought to bed on Saturday, and he knew it. How can I tell that he did? His post-race radio.
“We won one! Let’s go!” Allmendinger shouted.
Obviously, Allmendinger’s win locks him into the next round of the NASCAR Xfnity Series Playoffs with Noah Gragson, but those two aren’t the only ones that raced well.
The Winners
Austin Hill led a whopping 60 of 113 laps, but ultimately fell short due to some late-race difficulties with navigating lapped traffic. Although the 14th-place finish isn’t what Hill and the Richard Childress Racing crew wanted after having two cars start on the front row, it wasn’t a terrible day at the office.
Hill won both of the first stages with Sheldon Creed directly in tow in stage one. Couple that with Hill’s earlier superspeedway wins earlier this season and he’s carving out quite a nice role for himself as a potential superstar at those tracks.
Stage 1 results:
P1: @_AustinHill
P2: @sheldoncreed @BennettFamilyCo | @WhelenMTRS | #WomenDriveBennett | @WhelenEng pic.twitter.com/zup4TcERYI— RCR (@RCRracing) October 1, 2022
Mayer will get it, and Saturday proved that. JRM’s young gun has had himself quite the rookie year, and some people blame it on his equipment. I have news for those people – you have to be able to drive it, and he can.
It’s not often we see a rookie racer go toe-to-toe with one of the series’ all time best, but that’s exactly what happened on Saturday. He showed patience and pace all day as he finished both the first stages inside the top 10 (P10 & P6, respectively). More importantly, though, when he was presented an opportunity for the win he took it without blinking.
Mark my words, Mayer will be a very, very good driver sooner rather than later, and anyone that thinks otherwise shouldn’t be your friend.
Still a lot to be proud of today. pic.twitter.com/o72GHPiYoQ
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