Sometimes in motorsports, there are drivers who have the talent to stay ahead of the field, but it just requires time and patience for them to reach that phase. Such has been the case of one JR Motorsports driver who has been with the team for nearly two full-time seasons. Just last weekend NASCAR headed down to Road America for the Xfinity Series race, where JR Motorsports’ Sam Mayer clenched his first win after a rather long winless period.
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Speaking about Mayer, Denny Hamlin recently sang high praises for him. Hamlin argued that if he stayed with the team for longer, there could be a good chance for him to be a championship favorite a few years down the line.
Denny Hamlin praises Sam Mayer’s progress in the Xfinity Series
While discussing the subject on his podcast, Actions Detrimental, Hamlin mentioned, “I’m liking what I’m seeing from Sam, as far as he’s trending well, he is. I mean, at the very beginning, it would have been very easy to write Sam off saying just wrecks too much. And he’s, you know, he doesn’t have the speed of his teammates, and it’s just whatever you could make that argument.”
“But sometimes I think we forget how young these guys are, and when they’re really, really young. And so now we’re starting to see him turn the corner and come into his own and it’s not just about the win this weekend.”
“He’s steadily gotten better throughout his career at JR Motorsports. So I think that he’s someone that probably, as long as he doesn’t leave. I think in two years, he could be a championship favorite in the Xfinity series.”
How Sam Mayer achieved his first Xfinity Series win
It took the 20-year-old JR Motorsports talent a full 72 races before winning his first race in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. There have been periods of highs and lows all along his career. The two-time ARCA Menards Series East champion came home to win at Road America with a gap of just 0.368 seconds over the man in second, Parker Kligerman.
The last couple of laps saw an intense battle between Mayer, Kligerman, and Sage Karam. In the end, after several back-and-forths for the lead, it was Mayer who seized the opportunity right as Karam went off the track and into the grass.
He dived down the inside of Kligerman, taking over the lead at the last corner before the white flag. Thereafter, he held onto the lead till he reached the checkered flag, thereby achieving his first win in the Xfinity Series.
