NASCAR Xfinity Series: Meet the 2021 rookie class

2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series rookies: Sam Mayer

Sam Mayer arguably enjoyed one of the best years for a stock car driver last year. He won his second straight ARCA Menards Series East championship. Consider this: he won five times and finished in second place, just 0.242 seconds behind Ty Gibbs, in the other race. Mayer ascended up the prospect ladder, and it resulted in a dual promotion.

Mayer experienced a thrill of a Truck Series playoff-opening weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway. Before that race, JR Motorsports had signed him to run full-time in the Xfinity Series behind the wheel of the #8 Chevrolet once he turns 18 years old on Saturday, June 26. In 2022, he is slated to run the full season..

At Bristol Motor Speedway, he won the Truck Series playoff opener for his first career Truck Series victory, and following that race, he led a race-high 116 laps en route to his fifth career ARCA win. It was a memorable week for the Franklin, Wisconsin native.

Because Mayer is ineligible to compete in the Xfinity Series before his 18th birthday, he is instead set to compete with reigning ARCA championship-winning team Bret Holmes Racing in six ARCA races and five Truck Series races.

Mayer could begin his Xfinity Series career when the series travels to Pocono Raceway on Sunday, June 27, the day after his 18th birthday. So he will miss the first 15 of 33 races on the schedule.

NASCAR has not announced whether Mayer will be granted a playoff waiver. If he receives a waiver, he would likely need to win and finish in the top 25 in the point standings by the end of the 26-race regular season to make the playoffs. It’s a tall task, but he is a talented young man, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. is quite excited about Mayer’s future with JR Motorsports.