JR Motorsports Race Report
Saturday, Oct. 28, 2023
Race 32 of 33: Dead On Tools 250 at Martinsville Speedway
Track Specs: 0.526-mile oval / 250 laps
Race Winner: Justin Allgaier
Mayer’s Finish: 25th Points position: 1st
Sam Mayer, driver of the No. 1 Accelerate Professional Talent Solutions Chevrolet, battled a tough day from the start after putting the No. 1 Chevrolet 17th in line to start. Mayer battled through numerous amounts of damage all day, before an incident in the closing laps sent Mayer into the inside wall of Turn 2, and sent the young driver to the garage for a 25th-place finish at Martinsville Speedway. Fortunately, the young driver locked his way into the Championship 4 last weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway and will race for a championship in Phoenix next weekend.
Race Rundown
· Mayer set the Accelerate Professional Talent Solutions Chevrolet in 17th during the Friday evening qualifying event. The young driver stayed quiet throughout Stage One as he held mid-pack through the first few cautions of the night. Mayer reported he was free all around and suffered front-end damage due to an unfortunate on-track collision under yellow.
· Crew chief Mardy Lindley called the young driver down pit road for four tires, fuel, an adjustment and to assess the damage to the nose of the No. 1 Camaro. Mayer came back down pit road for a second time for some bandages to the damage and forced the young driver to restart 31st and grabbed a 29th-place Stage One finish.
· The No. 1 JR Motorsports team chose to stay out under the stage break to move up the field and restarted Stage Two in 18th. The fourth caution of the night fell shortly after the restart and Mayer slammed on the brakes to avoid a collision with No. 11, narrowly missing the car ahead. Mayer restarted in the 20th position and quickly began his ascent up the leaderboard.
· As fresher tires started to prevail, the driver of the No. 1 Chevrolet propelled his way to a 14th-place Stage Two finish and reported his car was feeling much better and right where he wanted it. Lindley made the decision to come down pit road under the stage break for fuel only to allow the young driver to pick up 13 spots on pit road and restart the final stage third in line.
· The Franklin, Wis. native battled hard for the second position but fell back a few spots to fifth where he held strong. The field started to shake up and the yellow flags started to fall. With 75 laps to go in the Saturday evening event, Mayer came down pit road under caution for four Goodyear tires and some Sunoco fuel but was involved in a small collision leaving pit road.
· The No. 1 came back down pit road to fix the damage to the left front and rolled off 29th. A lap-236 caution saw Mayer in the 16th position and held strong until a multi-car incident sent Mayer into the inside wall off of Turn 2.
· Under the red flag, the damage on the No. 1 Chevrolet was deemed unrepairable and sent Mayer to the garage, relegating him to a 25th-place finish.
Sam Mayer, driver No. 1 Accelerate Professional Talent Solutions Chevrolet team
“Today was not the day we were hoping for here at Martinsville. It is great to already be locked into the Championship 4 so we were not too stressed about it but you never want a race to end like this no matter what. It is better to happen now than next week so we will pick our heads up and go race for a championship next week in Phoenix.”
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