Sam Mayer is starting to find success with his JR Motorsports Late Model Stock team.
One week after winning a weekly show at Hickory, Mayer returned to the Birthplace of the NASCAR Stars and took a hard-fought seventh.
Mayer entered the Throwback 276 with a Gray Ghost retro paint scheme that paid homage to the legendary Buddy Baker and Harry Rainier Oldsmobile, Mayer is a Lorin Ranier development driver.
Mayer battled a loose condition during qualifying and only posted the 24th quickest speed in time trials but found grip as the sun went down. He cracked the top-20 by Lap 38 and was 16th at the time of the Lap 40 competition caution.
By Lap 63, he was up to 12th and eight laps later, he entered the top-10, where he would remain to the finish. The result was Mayer’s third top-10 finish of the CARS Tour Late Model Stock season.
“She was pretty sporty tonight,” Mayer said. “I think we had about a seventh-place car all night. Qualifying wasn’t exactly what we wanted it to be, but we were able to get up through the field pretty quickly.
“I’m just glad that our car is in one piece after this race, because she is really good-looking and fast too. I’m happy with the finish. JR Motorsports puts together a pretty good car for us to run out here at Hickory. We got it pretty locked down and we should be ready to go next weekend at South Boston. We got into the 60 car (McCaskill) there, in the left side, and there was some smoke, but as long as it finished, I’m OK with it.”
Mayer remains eighth in the CARS Tour championship standings.
