Sieg was making his 342nd career NASCAR Xfinity Series start, and was still searching for his first-ever win after 12 years of competition. He was leading at the white flag, but Mayer was able to cut under him and gain the advantage down the backstretch.
But when Mayer slipped up in Turn 3, Sieg cut back under him and the two drag-raced to the finish line. It was a truly spectacular photo finish with Sieg door-slamming Mayer, who was up against the outside wall.
At the checkered flag, Mayer had the win by a mere 0.002s. Sieg was forced to settle for second.
“That’s absolutely unreal,” said an exasperated Mayer. “This team … the amount of adversity we had to fight this entire year so far and to come to a 1.5 miler that I want to say I’m good at, but it took every ounce of me to do that today. So proud of my team.”
Sieg on the heartbreaking loss: “Just tough. I was doing all that I could do. I wish we were on the other side of that .002. It is what it is. I think we are in the Dash For Cash now, so that is a good positive. We ran up front where we needed to be. We were able to make gains on it. I feel like there is more to come. We just have to put a full race together. Ugh, we were so close. That just sucks.”
Mayer was also a Dash 4 Cash driver, collecting the $100,000 bonus. Justin Allgaier finished third, A.J. Allmendinger fourth, and Cole Custer fifth.
Rounding out the top-ten were Austin Hill, Ryan Truex, Sammy Smith, Jesse Love, and Anthony Alfredo.
Stage 1
Love led the field to the green flag. At the start, Taylor Gray had a remarkable save, fishtailing down the backstretch before finally getting his car under control.
Chandler Smith was then able to get under Love and take the lead. The pole-sitter appeared to be struggling, and quickly dropped through the pack.
The first caution flag of the race was for a spin by Daniel Dye, who may have had a little help from his Kaulig Racing teammate Josh Williams.
Later in the run, Allgaier was able to power around the outside of Smith and take the lead. He went on to win Stage 1 ahead of C. Smith, Riley Herbst, Brandon Jones, R. Truex, Custer, A. Hill, R. Sieg, Allmendinger, and Parker Kligerman.
Stage 2
During pitstops, Allmendinger missed his box, which cost him all his track position as he had to return to the pits for service. Allgaier was firmly in control of the race at this point.
Kligerman was forced to pit under green for a vibration, and an incident involving Leland Honeyman set-up a sprint to the end of the stage.
There were six laps remaining in the stage at the restart, which saw plenty of action. Ryan Truex slapped the wall, but was able to carry on. Chandler Smith also sustained damage in a separate stack-up.
Allgaier swept the stages, beating Custer, Herbst, B. Jones. R. Sieg, S. Smith. A. Hill, Love, Allmendinger, and Mayer.
Stage 3
The final stage had a green-flag feel to it, and the final round of green-flag pitstops began with just under 60 laps to go. The cycle lasted for a while as several drives went long, hoping to catch a yellow. Austin Hill finally relinquished the lead with 30 laps to go, pitting.
Allgaier was back in control, but feeling the pressure from Herbst, it pushed the issue with the slower car of Honeyman. Contact was made, Honeyman slammed the wall, and the caution flew once again.
Kligerman chose to stay out during the caution and inherited the race lead while a two-tire call from Jones and Hill vaulted them in front of Allgaier.
A wild restart with 21 laps to go saw Jones surge into the lead, but as he and JR Motorsports teammate Sam Mayer were battling, an unexpected challenger approached. After restarting 10th, R. Sieg had made his way up to third and quickly took the lead.
The caution flag was then displayed as three cars crashed on the frontstretch. Kyle Weatherman, Sheldon Creed, and Hailie Deegan were all involved.
Sieg, a driver/owner who had never won before, got away on the ensuing restart. Jones and Herbst slammed doors, forcing Herbst to make an unscheduled pitstop.
Mayer was closing in on Sieg, catching him at the white flag. The spectacular photo finish saw Mayer eclipse Sieg by just 0.002s, denying him the upset victory.
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