Sam Mayer: “Everyone In [The O’Reilly Auto Parts] Series Sucks”

On Sunday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Sam Mayer had a stellar performance in the Blue Cross NC 300 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race. Nevertheless, Mayer’s hard-fought victory turned into a disappointing finish. After a collision with Jeremy Clements late in the race, Mayer faced multiple impacts from other drivers, which culminated in a blown tire in the closing laps. Despite his best efforts, Mayer settled for a 23rd-place finish, one lap shy of the top spot.

Mayer expressed his frustration to Frontstretch on pit road, admitting that his team’s Cardiac Chevy from HFT was "really fast." He lamented, "We were really good. The Cardiac Chevy from HFT was really fast. Yeah, just didn't get the finish we deserved." Mayer’s disappointment stemmed from contact with other competitors, which likely ended his chances at winning the championship.

Mayer’s dissatisfaction extended beyond the race itself. "Everyone in this series sucks. There’s nobody worth anything past 10th place. It’s atrocious," Mayer exclaimed. "I hate it. It’s annoying. Got to be better. I don’t know." He expressed his frustration with the prevalence of late-race crashes, saying, "Yeah, everyone just crashes at the end of these races, and it just doesn’t make sense to me.

I mean, we can’t go another 10 laps without getting into each other. It was a clean race, all race, and at the end of these races, everyone just loses their minds, and it’s just pathetic."

While Mayer wasn’t mathematically eliminated from the championship contention after the race, his outside-the-top-20 finish made the path to a title more challenging. Mayer sits sixth in the championship standings, trailing leader Sheldon Creed by 59 points. With four races remaining in the season, Mayer finds himself needing to leapfrog five championship-caliber drivers in the standings to secure the title at Homestead-Miami Speedway.