Terrifying moment NASCAR star Sam Mayer flips his car while trying a race-winning move on final lap… but lucky driver avoids injury before admitting: ‘That’s the hardest lick I’ve taken’
- Sam Mayer was going for the lead on final lap of Xfinity Series season opener
- He made contact with the eventual race winner Austin Hill and flipped his car
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Young NASCAR driver Sam Mayer was involved in a horrifying car-flipping crash at Daytona on Saturday night, failing in his bid to secure a last-lap victory.
The 19-year-old was racing in the Xfinity Series season-opening race – titled the Beef 300 – and was well-placed to secure some impressive points, until his race was turned upside down, quite literally, on the final lap.
The race went into overtime and Justin Allgaier was the leader until his teammate, Mayer, went high in an attempt to make the winning pass.
Contact between Mayer and the eventual winner Austin Hill caused Mayer to spin and his Chevrolet to flip onto its roof, bringing out a race-ending caution.
NASCAR then had to review timing and scoring to determine who was the leader when the yellow was thrown.
Sparks fly from the car of Sam Mayer after he flipped it on the final lap at Daytona on Saturday
Mayer (left) was going for the lead on the final lap when he made contact with Austin Hill
NASCAR needed nearly 10 minutes to determine Hill was ahead of Allgaier when the race ended. Allgaier settled for second.
‘You can’t lift, it’s last lap,’ Hill said. ‘I hope Sam’s OK, man. That was a heck of a flip.’
Mayer was later cleared from NASCAR’s infield medical center, and told Fox: ‘It’s been quite a few years since I’ve been upside down.
‘That was probably the hardest lick I’ve taken and I thought I’d taken the hardest one I could. That was harder, so I guess there’s always a higher ceiling somewhere.’
Hill won the Xfinity Series season-opening race for the second consecutive year to diminish some of the sting the Richard Childress Racing driver felt two days earlier when he failed to qualify for the Daytona 500.
Hill rebounded and drove from last to first at Daytona International Speedway.
Mayer admitted afterwards that it was the ‘hardest lick’ he’s had as a NASCAR driver
Mayer’s No 1 car crashes on the back stretch in the NASCAR Xfinity Series opening race
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