By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
With a teammate in line, Sam Mayer looked to have a one-up on race leader Jesse Love Saturday at Daytona International Speedway.
On a restart with three laps to go in the Xfinity Series season opener, Mayer and newly rebranded Haas Factory Team teammate Sheldon Creed were lined up on the bottom lane.
Despite the link from behind, Mayer was unable to stay alongside Love’s No. 2, who barely cleared Mayer’s No. 41 exiting the tri-oval and grabbed the win following a mid-pack wreck on the last lap.
“The pushing is really hard in this series,” Mayer said. “I tried to stay with the No. 2 too much and I didn’t let the No. 00 [Creed] keep up with me. If you have a pusher, you’re going to be in a good spot.”
Ending one lap early due to the caution flag, Mayer admits a plan was not in place for the final corners.
“You can never have a plan. You can have a plan, but as soon as you get punched in the face, you don’t have a plan anymore,” he said. “You never know until you get there what you’re going to do. I think we were going to be in a really good spot. Especially having the No. 00 behind me, I felt the No. 2 was going to be a sitting duck.
“One spot short is going to salt that wound a little bit.”
Despite the heartbreak that is finishing second at Daytona, Mayer has a greater perspective after crashing out of the season opener the last two years — including a rollover from the lead in 2023.
Now, the 21-year-old exits Daytona fifth in points.
“I can unfortunately say this is the first time I’ve walked out of Daytona with at least a half-decent points day,” he said. “It means a lot. Now we can go into the next couple weeks with some actual momentum. I’m really looking forward to it whereas years past, I was like, ‘OK, we have to catch up on the West Coast Swing. Now we got to catch up in the summer.’ There was always a little bit of something.
“Now that we’re ahead of the game, we can go win the regular season championship for sure.”
2025 is the start of Mayer’s next era in Xfinity. After three years with JR Motorsports, tallying seven total wins and a Championship 4 appearance in ’23, he kicks off his Haas era with teammate Creed in strong form.
“Welcome to Xfinity, Haas Factory,” he said. “This is a really good start. The Rockingham test went amazing. We had a lot of speed off the truck. Now coming off two podiums is really cool at Daytona.
“This was some of the most fun I’ve had working with a teammate,” he said. “With JRM, there were four, sometimes five of us. You’re working with whoever is around you. Now, you have to really find your one teammate and hook up with him.
“It’s a lot of fun because it’s challenging. Sheldon is one of the best plate racers in the series right now. I’m definitely going to learn a lot off him.”