Sam Mayer’s 2025 NASCAR season is over.
NASCAR announced Tuesday that Mayer had been suspended for the Xfinity Series season finale at Phoenix for intentionally crashing Jeb Burton after the checkered flag flew Saturday night at Martinsville. Mayer drove Burton into the wall in Turn 1 right after the race was over.
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Mayer was one of the eight drivers in the playoff semifinals racing for four spots in the championship race at Phoenix. However, Mayer was eliminated from the playoffs at Martinsville on Saturday night after finishing seventh. He said after the race that he was upset with Burton’s actions in the previous race at Talladega. Mayer finished last after he was part of a 10-car crash on lap 15.
“He caused a 20-car pileup at Talladega which put us in the spot we’re in going into today so it was his fault to begin with,” Mayer told reporters after the race. “Him left-hooking the No. 20 car in the middle of the trioval at Talladega is just an absolutely silly thing to have happen.”
Burton finished sixth at Martinsville and Mayer said that he was also unhappy with the way that Burton had raced him at the half-mile track before the end of the race.
Haas Factory Team said it would not appeal Mayer’s penalty and that Ryan Sieg, an Xfinity Series regular who drives for his own team, would fill in for Mayer at Phoenix.
Mayer, 22, will likely finish eighth in the points standings with one win and 18 top-10 finishes. The 2025 season was his fourth full-time in NASCAR’s No. 2 series and his first with HFT. He had previously spent his entire career with JR Motorsports and has eight career wins and a best finish of third in the points standings.
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JR Motorsports will have three of the four drivers racing for the title in Justin Allgaier, Carson Kvapil and Connor Zilisch along with Richard Childress Racing’s Jesse Love.
