The NASCAR Xfinity Sequence has a brand new highway course ace.

“We could also be Allmendinger 2.0,” Sam Mayer quipped after successful Saturday’s Drive for the Treatment 250 offered by BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina on the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval and clinching a spot within the Spherical of 8 within the collection playoffs.

The reference was to AJ Allmendinger, winner of the earlier 4 Xfinity races on the 2.32-mile, 17-turn circuit. With Allmendinger ineligible for the race as a full-time NASCAR Cup driver this 12 months, Mayer took over and obtained the win he wanted to advance within the playoffs.

Mayer earned the ultimate spot within the Spherical of 8 on the expense of seventh-place finisher Daniel Hemric, who ran third in a three-way drag race to the end line with Parker Kligerman and Kaz Grala—when a fifth-place outcome would have been sufficient to outlive the spherical.

“They got here out within the backside of the seventh and hit a house run,” mentioned Hemric, who completed second in every of the primary two phases and was bounced from the postseason solely as a result of Mayer received from final place within the Xfinity Playoff standings.

Lining up second subsequent to Cole Custer for a restart on lap 63 of 67, Mayer muscled his well past Custer’s No. 00 Ford by way of Turns 3 and 4 a lap later and pulled away to win by 0.909s.

“I knew we had time,” mentioned Mayer, who led 5 instances for 50 laps. “Our automotive was so quick—it actually felt unbeatable… We kicked their tails at this time, and it simply feels so nice.”

The victory was the third for the 20-year-old driver of the No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet—all this 12 months and all on highway programs.

“That is our second-chance second,” Mayer mentioned. “I feel we are able to make one thing out of it… We will go on and do nice issues due to this win.”

Kligerman, Josh Berry and Jeb Burton joined Hemric on the playoff sidelines. Kligerman missed out by 5 factors after coming house sixth.

Berry completed third regardless of battling points along with his energy steering however fell brief in a must-win state of affairs, as did Burton, who stayed out on outdated tires for a restart on lap 60 and crashed into Justin Allgaier’s Chevrolet in Flip 1.

Something can occur on the ROVAL. 😱 #NASCARPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/5swyZoTg9Q

— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) October 7, 2023

Sheldon Creed, however, squeaked into the Spherical of 8 by two factors over Hemric after working tenth on Saturday.

“We had no entrance flip,” Creed mentioned. “I used to be speaking to our teammate Austin (Hill) about it. Each of our automobiles didn’t flip all day… I needed to work for that one. I didn’t assume we might be in by two—I assumed we might be higher than that.”

After the lap 63 restart, Hemric’s destiny was within the palms of Custer, who couldn’t preserve Mayer behind him.

“We struggled on the brief run, for certain,” Custer mentioned. “It’s irritating. There are undoubtedly issues on the replay I might have carried out completely different, however our guys did an important job all day, getting our automotive to the place we might compete for a win—however we simply wanted a little bit extra.”

Riley Herbst ran fourth, with Kaz Grala fifth. Kligerman, Hemric, Stage 2 winner John Hunter Nemechek, Hill and Creed accomplished the highest 10.

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