As Sam Mayer celebrated his drama-filled victory in Saturday’s Drive for the Treatment 250 Offered by Blue Cross and Blue Protect of NC on the Charlotte Motor Speedway Highway Course, Parker Kligerman watched a replay of the whisker-close circumstance that knocked him out of the NASCAR Xfinity Sequence Playoffs.
In extra time, Mayer handed Kligerman in Flip 7 of the two.280-mile, 17-turn circuit and pulled away to say the victory that propelled him into the Playoffs’ Spherical of 8.
However Mayer’s win was devastation for Kligerman, who has by no means received an Xfinity Sequence race. Kligerman was main, with the white flag waving, when NASCAR known as a warning for Leland Honeyman’s spin into the barrier in Flip 3.
It’s a stroll off win on the Roval for Sam Mayer! #NASCARPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/gPs88Xp6TB
— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) October 12, 2024
Had the warning name come a fraction of a second later, Kligerman would have been the winner beneath yellow. The extra time, nevertheless, gave Mayer one other shot in his No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet—arguably the category of the sphere—and the 21-year-old from Franklin, Wis., took full benefit.
“We had been all crossed up getting up in there (Flip 7),” Mayer stated of the successful cross. “I used to be free stepping into [Turn] 6, and I knew that was my solely shot, if I obtained an excellent angle into that nook.
“He blocked the underside, which was good for me in that it gave me a greater angle up off the nook and obtained this Chevrolet connected, and we had been gone from there. Now I get to rejoice.”
Each Mayer and Kligerman wanted to win to advance within the Playoffs, however it was Mayer who obtained his third win of the season, his second straight on the Roval and the seventh of his profession, beating runner-up A.J. Allmendinger to the end line by 1.474s.
He joins JR Motorsports teammates Sammy Smith and Justin Allgaier within the Spherical of 8, together with Chandler Smith (fifth), Austin Hill (fourth), defending sequence champion Cole Custer (thirteenth), Allmendinger and Jesse Love (nineteenth), who earned the ultimate switch spot by two factors over Saturday’s pole winner and third-place finisher Shane van Gisbergen.
Kligerman left Charlotte twelfth within the standings, a distant 24 factors shy of the Spherical of 8 after fading to sixth on the ultimate lap.
“I’ve completed this interview from that facet,” stated Kligerman, who has mixed careers of broadcasting and racing—and who will retire from full-time competitors on the finish of the season. “It’s actually robust from this facet.
“I teared up after I thought we obtained it there on the white flag, then the warning comes out, and we needed to re-focus… I believed I lower off Flip 7 sufficient, however he (Mayer) someway obtained under me, after which it was on from there.
“It was full contact. Sam didn’t do something egregious. It was exhausting racing, however as shut as you can be to the road. Now I need to cry—I’m not going to cry, however I actually love this sport, and it might’ve meant the world.”
For Mayer, it was no cakewalk. On lap three, he served a pass-through penalty for leaping the beginning from the second grid place, and within the late going, Mayer had an issue stepping into third gear via the primary two corners on the NASCAR oval.
He persevered, as did Allgaier, who completed seventh after ending third in Stage 1 and successful Stage 2—his fifteenth stage win of the season.
Exiting the Playoffs with Kligerman and Van Gisbergen had been Riley Herbst and Sheldon Creed, victims of a pileup in Flip 17 on Lap 34. Herbst completed thirty second and Creed thirty fifth.
