O’REILLY: Haas Factory Team throws everything at Sam Mayer’s engine issue, but it’s a short afternoon in Rockingham
by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
PHOTO: Sam Mayer’s social media team, @sam_mayer
Sam Mayer picked up the 6th last-place finish of his NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series career in Saturday’s North Carolina Education Lottery 250 presented by Black’s Tire at the Rockingham Speedway when his #41 Audibel Chevrolet fell out with a blown engine after 154 of the race’s 250 laps.
The finish, which came in Mayer’s 157th series start, was his first of the season and first in an O’Reilly race since October 18, 2025 at Talladega, 10 races ago. In the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series rankings, it was the 16th last-place finish for the #41, the 291st from the engine, and the 685th for Chevrolet. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 63rd for the #41, the 1,161st for a blown engine, and the 2,033rd for Chevrolet.
When Mayer was last featured here, he’d just been struck a devastating blow to his championship aspirations for 2025. A crash, followed an expired “Crash Clock” caused by an ill-timed two-lap penalty, sent him behind the wall and out of the race. In desperation mode for the penultimate round at Martinsville, Mayer intentionally wrecked Jeb Burton after the checkered flag, resulting in a one-race suspension. This put Ryan Sieg into Mayer’s car for the championship race in Phoenix, where contact from Christian Eckes sent Sieg spinning into the Turn 3 wall and out of the race.
This year, Mayer and the Haas Factory Team have made a fresh start with a manufacturer switch to Chevrolet, a technical alliance with Hendrick Motorsports, and a joint effort with RSS Racing that all but eliminated Ford’s shrinking presence in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. The results have been immediate: teammate Sheldon Creed ended his 138-race losing streak in the second race of the year at Atlanta, a career marked by 15 runner-up finishes. While Creed arrived in Saturday’s race 3rd in pints, 116 markers out of the lead, Mayer was still in search of his first win of the season, though he remained just two points out of breaking into the Top 10.
The Rockingham race saw exactly 38 drivers entered for as many spots, guaranteeing all entrants a place in the field. This was the result of two noticeable absences, starting with the #30 Chevrolet from Barrett-Cope Racing team missing from the preliminary entry list. Then came the withdrawal of AM Racing’s #25 Ford for driver Nick Sanchez, leaving J.J. Yeley at the Hettinger Racing #5 as the lone Ford in the field, just as Sanchez had been in COTA. As of this writing, the Bristol plans for both teams are still to be announced. In opening practice, Mayer ranked 7th with a best lap of 23.260 seconds (145.486mph). He was 19th out to qualify, where he matched the 7th-place rank with a lap of 22.852 seconds (148.083mph).
The 38th and final starting spot fell to Garrett Smithley, whose Easter-themed #0 Chevrolet for SS-Green Light Racing was a joint effort with the B.A.S.I.C. Racing Ministry. Unfortunately, Smithley bounced off the wall in practice, and repairs kept him from turning a lap in qualifying. His was the only car to miss the session, incurring a redundant tail-end penalty for unapproved adjustments. Also docked for adjustments were both 23rd-place Austin Green in the #87 3-Dimensional Services Chevrolet and Joey Gase in the #35 Stripes TV Chevrolet.
When the race started, Smithley remained last across the stripe, his #0 showing 3.773 seconds back of the lead to 36th-place Gase at a 3.614 and 35th-place Green at 3.554. By the end of Lap 1, Smithley had climbed past Gase, who crossed the stripe 5.617 seconds back of the lead, then on Lap 3 took 36th past Dawson Cram in the #74 Outlaws Sim Series Chevrolet. The next time by on Lap 4, Gase dropped Cram to last. Moments later, Cleetus McFarland, making his series debut, drove his #33 Tommy’s Express Car Wash Chevrolet into a three-wide battle under Josh Bilicki’s #07 Mando Chevrolet with Nathan Byrd’s #42 Randco Chevrolet to their outside, all running around the 30th spot. McFarland started to spin, then recovered on the apron without drawing the caution. This dropped McFarland to last on Lap 5, now 12.194 seconds back of the lead and nearly two seconds back of now 37th-place Cram.
McFarland soon caught Cram and re-passed him on Lap 9, putting the #74 in last and opening up a one-second advantage over him by Lap 12. McFarland dropped Gase to 37th on Lap 36, and Cram then started to reel in Gase with faster lap times, reaching his back bumper by Lap 19. By then, Cram was 23.160 seconds back of the lead, and was the first driver lapped on Lap 20. Gase lost a lap an instant later, then Cram dropped Gase to last on Lap 22. That same lap, Gase had to swing his car to the high lane in Turns 3 and 4 as the side-by-side battle for 4th between Taylor Gray and Carson Kvapil rushed past to his inside. This opened up a half-straightaway gap between the final two cars of Cram and Gase.
On Lap 36, Cram caught and passed Smithley for 36th, and Gase now started to close on the #0, only to lose a second lap during the pursuit. Gase remained in last on Lap 49, when his teammate Blake Lothian spun the #55 The Texas Lawbook Chevrolet in the high lane of Turns 1 and 2. He avoided contact with both walls, but was nearly struck by McFarland as he made a late move to the apron. By Lap 51, Lothian had fallen two laps down, putting him on the same lap as Gase, then took last on Lap 52 after making a pit stop. It was during this caution that Mayer started to have engine trouble on his #41. He’d fallen to the tail end of the lead lap in 27th, then made a lengthy pit stop for the crew to look under the hood. He remained on the lead lap for the restart, by which point Gase had retaken last from Lothian on Lap 57. The order remained the same on Lap 62, when the caution fell to end Stage 1.
But under this yellow, Mayer had another long stop, this time to replace the MSD box on his Chevrolet. This dropped him two laps down, moving him to last on Lap 65. He returned to the track without losing another lap, dropping Gase back to last on Lap 67, but Mayer reported the change didn’t fix his engine issue. With no choice but to ride it out, Mayer took the Lap 70 restart with the rest of the field.
On Lap 74, Gase dropped Lothian back to last place, just before tight racing between Rajah Caruth and Jesse Love the right-rear corner of Love’s #2 Whelen Chevrolet off the backstretch wall. The contact caused Love’s splitter to hit the track, but like Mayer, he continued under green. Next to find trouble was Dean Thompson, whose #26 Thompson Pipe Group Toyota dropped off the pace on Lap 79 and came down pit road with a flat right-front tire. By the time his crew completed a two-tire change, he was two laps down in 35th, on the same lap as 36th-place Mayer, 37th-place Gase, and 38th-place Lothian. Lothian then lost a third lap on Lap 93, just before Jeremy Clements’ spin in the #51 Alliance Driveway Solutions Chevrolet drew the next caution on Lap 94. Mayer made another long pit stop under this yellow, dropping him to last on Lap 97. This time, Mayer missed the restart. He returned to the track on Lap 109 showing 15 laps down. His last completed lap clocked in at 573.177 seconds, or just under 10 full minutes. He lost another lap by the end of Stage 2 on Lap 121.
On Lap 137, the Bottom Five changed order as Cram had fallen back to 37th, showing 3 laps down on the same lap as now 36th-place Lothian, and Bilicki had dropped to 35th, showing two laps down along with 34th-place Gase. That same lap saw McFarland spin in Turn 1, but again not drawing the caution flag as he continued. Meanwhile, the damaged Jesse Love made an extended stop for an issue behind his right-rear wheel, dropping him three laps down into 31st. The caution didn’t fall again until Lap 165, when Anthony Alfredo spun his #96 Dude Wipes Chevrolet on the frontstretch, then exploded his right-front tire and fender on the backstretch. By then, Patrick Staropoli had also developed issues on his #48 Syfovre Chevrolet, which by Lap 168 had dropped six laps down to 36th, one lap ahead of 37th-place Bilicki. Shortly after the Lap 172 restart, the caution flew again when Ryan Sieg sent Clements into a second spin, this time backing into the outside wall. At nearly the same time, Mayer pulled behind the wall and had fallen 19 laps down. Mayer was shown “off” on TheCW’s timing and scoring until the closing laps, when the Haas Factory Team confirmed he was out.
Taking 37th was Kyle Sieg, who after running the fastest lap in practice ahead of brother Ryan, suffered late-race electrical issues on his #28 Night Owl Chevrolet. Kyle pulled onto pit road with 56 to go, already four laps down in 34th, then gradually fell to 37th by the finish. Bilicki and Cram were the last two drivers to finish under power, both on the same lap, each one circuit behind 34th-place Staropoli. Gae and Lothian climbed to 31st and 30th, passing McFarland, who spun four times on the day, taking a 32nd-place finish. Clements and Alfredo managed to finish 25th and 24th in their damaged cars while Love finished behind them in 27th.
Sawalich scores first win, “Lucky Dog” recipients capitalize at The Rock
Saturday marked William Sawalich’s first career O’Reilly Auto Parts Series victory in his 42nd start, becoming the first time a driver for Minnesota won a race in NASCAR Cup, O’Reilly, or Truck Series competition. At this same race last year, Sawalich accidentally bumped Katherine Legge, who crashed out of the race. At the time, Sawalich was struggling through his transition from ARCA to NASCAR, ranking as low as 25th in driver’s points through the season’s first half. He turned things around after an ARCA West win at Sonoma, followed by a 3rd in the O’Reilly race there, only to miss the last two races of the year after a crash in Talladega. Sawalich led 80 of the 250 laps on a day where Corey Day likewise seemed poised to score his first win, leading 118 laps from pole before he faded to 10th.
Further back, Harrison Burton’s 13th-place finish in the #24 Elite Rewards Toyota became his new season-best in a year where his previous mark of 17th in Las Vegas has been his only finish better than 22nd in 2026. Nathan Byrd took home 16th for Randy Young, his own career-best finish that best his 21st-place debut at Portland back in 2024. Alex Labbe bounced back from his last-place run in Darlington to finish 18th in the #91 eRacing Association Chevrolet ahead of his DGM Racing x JIM teammate Josh Williams, who took 19th in the #92 DGM Chevrolet. Then in 20th came J.J. Yeley in the lone Ford, the #5 Victory Custom Trailers effort that crashed due to brake failure at Martinsville in the hands of Luke Baldwin. Byrd, Yeley, and Williams had rejoined the lead lap after earning separate “Lucky Dogs.” The last car on the lead lap was that of Andrew Patterson, who in his second career start improved on his Martinsville debut with a 21st in the #32 Winsupply / SCS Gearbox Chevrolet.
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked the first last-place finish for the #41 in an O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race since February 22, 1997, when Joey McCarthy’s #41 Rent-a-Wreck Chevrolet had an oil leak after 2 laps.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
38) #41-Sam Mayer / 154 laps / engine
37) #28-Kyle Sieg / 201 laps / electrical
36) #07-Josh Bilicki / 241 laps / running
35) #74-Dawson Cram / 241 laps / running
34) #48-Patrick Staropoli / 242 laps / running
2026 LASTCAR O’REILLY AUTO PARTS SERIES OWNER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) DGM Racing x JIM (2)
2nd) AM Racing, Haas Factory Team, Hettinger Racing, Joey Gase Motorsports with Scott Osteen, RSS Racing, Young’s Motorsports (1)
2026 LASTCAR O’REILLY AUTO PARTS SERIES MANUFACTURER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (5)
2nd) Ford (3)
2026 LASTCAR O’REILLY AUTO PARTS SERIES DRIVER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
