Overtime chaos punctuated Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Watkins Glen International as Sam Mayer emerged with a victory after moving leader Ty Gibbs out of his way.
Mayer spun out Gibbs, who led 70 of the 86 laps, in Turn 1 of the final restart with two laps to go and held off Sheldon Creed by .909 of a second to capture the Shriners Children’s 200 at The Glen for his second career Xfinity victory in the JR Motorsports No. 1 Chevrolet.
Parker Kligerman, Ross Chastain and Connor Mosack rounded out the top five.
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Mayer: ‘That’s an accident’
Moments earlier, Mayer hinted over the radio at payback for the manner in which Gibbs raced him following a restart that pushed Gibbs from third place into the lead. Gibbs ended up 17th.
Mayer reiterated during his press conference there was no intent to take out Gibbs’ No. 19 Toyota.
“A tough deal. Overdrove the corner trying to get to the inside and wheel-hopped and scraped into him,” Mayer said. “Obviously as a race-car driver I wouldn’t appreciate that and I don’t appreciate doing that to people. … It was just a mistake, one of those deals. He’s obviously upset and I would be too.”
Mayer added earlier, “That’s an accident, but I think everyone can agree it’s OK for an Xfinity Series regular to win this race,” referring to Gibbs’ status as a full-time driver in the Cup Series for his grandfather’s Joe Gibbs Racing team.
Gibbs: ‘It’s part of life’
Gibbs was asked about the possibility of having a discussion with Mayer to dissect the incident.
“I don’t know how much of a conversation you can really have with him in that situation,” Gibbs said. “We’ve been kind of growing up around racing each other. I think he has more starts than I do and that was his second win. Congratulations to him on his second win. I definitely wish I could have got my 13th there.”
Added Gibbs of the finish:
“It’s part of life and it’s part of racing. You…
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