“I could be aggressive on restarts. Really aggressive gaining that track position.” Sam Mayer uttered these words upon winning the NASCAR Xfinity Series race in Iowa back in August. He had powered his No. 41 Ford past Jesse Love following a Lap 234 restart, securing Haas-Factory Team’s first-ever win. Almost three months later, Mayer stayed true to those words while trying to fetch his team its first championship – although the consequences will be bitter, as Denny Hamlin believes.

The penultimate race of the Xfinity Series playoffs unfolded recently at Martinsville Speedway. JR Motorsports drivers had a big advantage, with Connor Zilisch and Justin Allgaier already locked in. Hence, Sam Mayer was fighting against hope to prevail over them – but his ambitious drive tipped over into a chaotic mess.

Denny Hamlin shakes his head in disappointment

When Sam Mayer had fetched the Iowa trophy, Denny Hamlin had praised him. “He’s winning on ovals. He’s doing all the good things,” the Joe Gibbs Racing veteran stated. Despite not winning again, Mayer kept a consistent streak of 13 top fives and 18 top tens. That consistency was enough to bring him oh so close to a championship 4 berth – but not enough to justify his actions in Martinsville. Last Saturday, a massive conflict broke out between Sam Mayer and Jeb Burton. “I think he’s going to have a bad week,” Hamlin predicted for Mayer.

Initially, their conflict was similar to that of Denny Hamlin and Ty Gibbs in New Hampshire. The two exchanged sparks during the race, and Hamlin could understand both drivers’ viewpoints. He said in an ‘Actions Detrimental’ episode: “This was a guy that was battling for points and…trying to go to the Final Four. So, I get it that Jeb went back to like 20th, but it wasn’t entirely Sam Mayor’s fault. He got ping ponged around…Jeb knocks this 41 back and I got no issues with that. He’s up. You know, he was pissed off about it. He didn’t wreck him. That’s good.”

However, chaos unfolded after the checkered flag flew.

Sam Mayer drove his No. 41 car into Jeb Burton’s No. 27, sending the latter roughly into the wall. Denny Hamlin shook his head in disappointment: “Sam Mayer, after the race, I don’t know what he was doing. That was a bad call. And I don’t know if he’s racing this weekend. I wish I had a good answer for you. Wrecking someone after the caution into the wall, no, probably not.” Hamlin added that NASCAR’s penalty for him is probably underway. “I think he’s watching Phoenix.” Mayer got knocked out of the Final Four anyway, finishing Martinsville 8 points below the cutline.

As for Jeb Burton, he was eager to see some punishment dished out. The Jordan Anderson Racing driver went on to say, “Hopefully, NASCAR does something, because he literally right-reared me into the outside wall. He ran over me for no reason, so I gave it back to him, and he threw a temper tantrum; it is what it is. When it matters the most for him – he’s in a really good car – it’s not gonna work out very well for him.”

But despite thoroughly destroying Jeb Burton’s car, there was no remorse in Sam Mayer’s voice in the post-race interview. However, he did express a little regret about a certain individual who, unfortunately, bore a heavy cost for the incident.

Upsetting a respected entity

There are always some people in the NASCAR garage who have an infectious personality. Jordan Anderson is one of them, being the owner of Jordan Anderson Racing, Jeb Burton’s team. He has worked with many drivers like Katherine Legge, Rajah Caruth this year, and Josh Berry and Tyler Reddick earlier. Denny Hamlin, Reddick’s current Cup Series owner, also praised him: “Jordan is one of the well-respected guys out there.” And Anderson lived up to his reputation in Martinsville by trying to diffuse the situation.

Denny Hamlin described how the distressed team owner took an even-handed approach. “When Jeb’s car stopped, Jordan jumped into the cockpit and said, ‘Let me go over there and talk to him.’ And so Jordan did a fantastic job…you got to say a big tip of your cap to Jordan to kind of de-escalating the situation and then going over there and addressing it himself as the car owner, of, hey, you just wrecked the car that I got to repair.”

Indeed, Anderson gave Sam Mayer an earful about his torn-up race car. And Mayer, despite harboring an aggressive stance against Jeb Burton, regretted his actions just for upsetting the respected owner. “I honestly hate it for Jordan,” said Mayer after the race. “Jordan is one of the coolest guys in the garage. He’s worked his tail off to get to this point. I definitely regret wrecking one of his race cars after the competition is over.”

Despite this slight remorse, the situation is looking grim for Sam Mayer. Let’s wait and see how NASCAR responds to his unbridled anger at Martinsville.