Over the weekend, Sam Mayer won his first race of 2025. It was enough to draw attention from Denny Hamlin on his podcast. Mayer now has eight wins in his NASCAR Xfinity Series career in less than 150 starts. The win for Sam Mayer was a big one. His first of the year, first with […]
Over the weekend, Sam Mayer won his first race of 2025. It was enough to draw attention from Denny Hamlin on his podcast. Mayer now has eight wins in his NASCAR Xfinity Series career in less than 150 starts.
The win for Sam Mayer was a big one. His first of the year, first with Haas Factory Team and first for that organization this season, and the first win for a Ford this season. It also locked him into the playoffs, which he was almost guaranteed to make on points.
Denny Hamlin talked about the win on Actions Detrimental. He gave Mayer kudos for switching teams and making it work.
“Certainly you don’t think the equipment is quite as good,” Hamlin said, comparing Haas to JR Motorsports. “In Xfinity, it’s tough because I’m not in the trenches there, I don’t know all the details of it. But it seems like Sam’s been doing a really good job lately of getting good finishes. Obviously, he won some road course races with JR [Motorsports] over the last few years. He’s winning on ovals, he’s doing all he good things.
“You know, we had discussions about Sam, um, I don’t know, probably early in the year, where I think he was probably doing something dumb, and it was like, and then he was talking about how people weren’t looking at him to move up, and we were like, well that’s why. As long as he keeps doing things like this, certainly he’s doing a lot of good things. He was fast all weekend. Wasn’t by accident by any means.”
Denny Hamlin is right. Sam Mayer was a bit frustrated a year ago when he was being passed over for Cup Series rides. To be fair to Mayer, there weren’t many new faces in the series this season. A lot of shuffling around. Cole Custer returned to the Cup Series for Haas. Then you had SVG and Riley Herbst enter as rookies. Ty Dillon made a return. A lot of familiar faces.
Mayer is still 22 years old. He has more maturing to do off and on the track. But the results don’t lie. Since his days in the ARCA East Series, and even going back to the CARS Tour, Mayer has been a winner.
Now, he may have to wait his time when it comes to the Cup Series. There aren’t many Silly Season movs going on in 2025. However, the 2026 season offers many unknowns that could benefit a driver like Mayer. That is, if a ride is available and is a good fit.
Category: General Sports
