FORT WORTH, Texas – It appeared that Ryan Sieg was cruising to steal the show in the closing laps at Texas Motor Speedway, en route to what would be his first career win at the NASCAR Xfinity Series level in Saturday’s Andy’s Frozen Custard 300.
Sieg made a surge to the front with XX laps remaining and held a comfortable 1.5 second gap ahead of Sam Mayer and Justin Allgaier. But with a few laps remaining, Mayer began to close the gap.
Mayer’s last lap pass was decided at the line by a mere .002 seconds, tying for the second closest finish in Xfinity Series history.
“So close yet so far away,” said Sieg. “I was trying to win the race. We’ve got so much more to gain. It was Matt’s eighth or tenth race. These Fords are so close. We’ve just got to do a little bit more.
“(The car) fell off and I was doing all I could to adjust. I knew the more we went, the tighter it would get. It took our car longer to start getting better. I was hoping I would get a big enough gap just to stay out, but he was able to reel me in there at the end.”
The dejection for Sieg is churning itself into encouragement with reflection. Since 2014, Sieg has competed full-time in Xfinity. While he still searches for his first trophy, his team has grown to become a reckoning force. Last year, Aric Almirola gave the team their first victory at Sonoma Raceway. Sieg earned his first top five finish on a non-superspeedway circuit since Kansas Speedway in 2021. Sieg has led 29 laps already this season, a near match of the previous three years.
The overall performance increase has Sieg reaching for and hoping for more to come.
“We’ve got the sponsorships and we’ve got Ford behind us,” he continued. “It’s definitely a reward to show that we can do it, that I can do it. This is the start of it. We ran good at Vegas. We’ve got more good tracks coming up. It should be fun for the rest of the year with the guys I have.”
Sieg and the field will travel 700 miles east to Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway for the Ag-Pro 300 (4 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Sieg finished second in 2020’s fall event, and fourth in both races in 2022.
FORT WORTH, Texas – It appeared that Ryan Sieg was cruising to steal the show in the closing laps at Texas Motor Speedway, en route to what would be his first career win at the NASCAR Xfinity Series level in Saturday’s Andy’s Frozen Custard 300.
Sieg made a surge to the front with XX laps remaining and held a comfortable 1.5 second gap ahead of Sam Mayer and Justin Allgaier. But with a few laps remaining, Mayer began to close the gap.
Mayer’s last lap pass was decided at the line by a mere .002 seconds, tying for the second closest finish in Xfinity Series history.
“So close yet so far away,” said Sieg. “I was trying to win the race. We’ve got so much more to gain. It was Matt’s eighth or tenth race. These Fords are so close. We’ve just got to do a little bit more.
“(The car) fell off and I was doing all I could to adjust. I knew the more we went, the tighter it would get. It took our car longer to start getting better. I was hoping I would get a big enough gap just to stay out, but he was able to reel me in there at the end.”
The dejection for Sieg is churning itself into encouragement with reflection. Since 2014, Sieg has competed full-time in Xfinity. While he still searches for his first trophy, his team has grown to become a reckoning force. Last year, Aric Almirola gave the team their first victory at Sonoma Raceway. Sieg earned his first top five finish on a non-superspeedway circuit since Kansas Speedway in 2021. Sieg has led 29 laps already this season, a near match of the previous three years.
The overall performance increase has Sieg reaching for and hoping for more to come.
“We’ve got the sponsorships and we’ve got Ford behind us,” he continued. “It’s definitely a reward to show that we can do it, that I can do it. This is the start of it. We ran good at Vegas. We’ve got more good tracks coming up. It should be fun for the rest of the year with the guys I have.”
Sieg and the field will travel 700 miles east to Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway for the Ag-Pro 300 (4 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Sieg finished second in 2020’s fall event, and fourth in both races in 2022.