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Mayer takes ARCA East finale at Five Flags

By Tadd Haislop, ARCAracing.com (Pensacola, FL) -- Even for a driver who had won four of five ARCA Menards Series East races in 2020, Sam Mayer entered Sunday’s season finale at 5 Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida, with an unusuaByl amount of confidence.

It turns out the 17-year-old’s conviction was warranted.

Mayer, who clinched his second consecutive East championship when he rolled his No. 21 End Stigma/Change Lives Chevrolet off the grid to start the Pensacola 200 presented by Inspectra Thermal Solutions, closed the season in style with his fifth win of the year.

"I don’t know what to say; this is an amazing feeling," said Mayer. "I can’t thank everyone behind me enough for all the support they’ve done. I appreciate all the opportunities I’ve had these last couple weeks to come out here and win races like this."

Sunday’s race result was very much in doubt when a caution just before the white flag set up an overtime finish with Mayer leading. The young driver from Franklin, Wisconsin, fought off a charge from ARCA Menards Series East Bounty Rookie of the Year Ty Gibbs on the last lap to seal a hard-fought victory.

"We definitely had to work for this one, for sure," said Mayer. "We had an awesome (Truck Series) driver in the field that gave us a run for our money."

That rival was Grant Enfinger, the 35-year-old NASCAR Gander Outdoors & RV Truck Series playoff driver who was racing at his home track on the Truck Series’ off weekend.

Enfinger won the General Tire Pole Award on Sunday and led 175 of 200 laps before finishing fifth. Mayer (31 laps) was the only other driver who led Sunday at the half-mile banked oval in Pensacola.

Corey Heim ended up passing Gibbs on the last lap to steal a second-place finish Sunday. Gibbs finished third ahead of Taylor Gray in fourth and Enfinger in fifth.

Jesse Love, Daniel Dye, Justin Carroll, Nick Sanchez and Parker Retzlaff rounded out the top 10.

Mayer won the 2020 Sioux Chief Showdown championship in addition to last season’s East title under the NASCAR banner, which means he has now won all three championships for which he has contended at this level.

"That’s a crazy stat," said Mayer. "Because we’ve only run for three championships, and we got them all. That’s pretty crazy that GMS (Racing) is just that good that they can kind of carry me almost getting all of these championships. Because I wouldn’t be anywhere without them and the driver development program at Team Chevy. Can’t thank them enough for the opportunities I’ve had to come out and run for these championships in the first place.

"Getting two championships in one year, I never thought I would have done that, especially going into New Smyrna this year. I expected to win at least one of them, but both of them, and locking them up pretty much going into the last race, is just huge for me."

Mayer’s win to close the season gave him an average finish of 1.2 in the ARCA Menards Series East for 2020; he finished second to Gibbs at Toledo in the only East race he did not win.

PHOTO CREDIT: Morgan Givens/ARCA Racing

Gibbs’ third-place finish Sunday put him second to Mayer (332-300).

Sanchez (259) finished third in the standings ahead of Retzlaff (255) in fourth and Mason Diaz (251) in fifth.

RESULTS

Fin St # Driver Sponsor / Owner Car Laps Status Led Pts
1 3 21 Sam Mayer END STIGMA. SAVE LIVES. (Maury Gallagher) Chevrolet 206 running 31 47
2 6 20 Corey Heim * Craftsman (Billy Venturini) Toyota 206 running 0 42
3 4 18 Ty Gibbs * Monster / Terrible Herbst / ORCA (Coy Gibbs) Toyota 206 running 0 41
4 2 17 Taylor Gray * Ford Performance (David Gilliland) Ford 206 running 0 40
5 1 77 Grant Enfinger Champion Power / Breland Homes (Chad Bryant) Ford 206 running 175 42
6 13 15 Jesse Love * JBL (Bill Venturini) Toyota 206 running 0 38
7 9 43 Daniel Dye * Jeep Beach / Heise LED / Halifax Health (Ben Kennedy) Chevrolet 206 running 0 37
8 16 91 Justin S. Carroll * Carroll Automotive (Terry Carroll) Toyota 206 running 0 36
9 10 6 Nick Sanchez * NASCAR Technical Institute / UTI (Max Siegel) Toyota 206 running 0 35
10 11 42 Parker Retzlaff * Ponsse (Bruce Cook) Toyota 206 running 0 34
11 12 63 Dave Mader III Diamond C Ranch / America Apparel / PRW LLC (Paris Wixon) Chevrolet 206 running 0 33
12 14 53 Max Gutierrez * Toughbuilt (Troy Williams) Toyota 205 running 0 32
13 8 22 Derek Griffith * Original Gourmet Lollipops (Chad Bryant) Ford 205 running 0 31
14 5 4E Chase Cabre Castle Power / Honda Generators (Max Siegel) Toyota 197 crash 0 30
15 17 10 Richard Garvie * Fast Track High Performance Driving (Andy Hillenburg) Ford 192 running 0 29
16 7 25 Mason Diaz * Solid Rock Carriers (Cathy Venturini) Toyota 191 running 0 28
17 15 14 Connor Okrzesik * Metro Glass / Sea Tow / Insinger Perf. (Connor Okrzesik) Chevrolet 189 running 0 27
18 18 48 Brad Smith Henshaw Automation (Brad Smith) Chevrolet 32 mechanical 0 26
19 19 11 D.L. Wilson * Trading House Grill (Andy Hillenburg) Chevrolet 25 mechanical 0 25
Rookie drivers are denoted with an asterisk.

• Race extended to 206 laps due to overtime.

Caution flag breakdown:
Condition From
Lap To
Lap # Of
Laps Reason Free
Pass
1 15 15
16 18 3 debris turn 3 #48
19 56 38
57 61 5 #14 accident turn 2 #63
62 75 14
76 77 2 break 1 #53
78 143 66
144 145 2 #4 accident turn 4 #6
146 157 12
158 164 7 #25 accident turn 2 #4
165 192 28
193 195 3 #25 accident frontstretch #42
196 198 3
199 203 5 #4 accident turn 3 #22)
204 206 3
Percent of race run under caution: 13.1% Average green flag run: 22.4 laps

Lap leader breakdown:
Leader From
Lap To
Lap # Of
Laps
Grant Enfinger 1 136 136
Sam Mayer 137 145 9
Grant Enfinger 146 146 1
Sam Mayer 147 149 3
Grant Enfinger 150 187 38
Sam Mayer 188 206 19
Points standings after this race:
Rank Driver Points Diff
1 Sam Mayer 282
2 Ty Gibbs 250 -32
3 Nick Sanchez 209 -73
4 Parker Retzlaff 205 -77
5 Mason Diaz 201 -81
6 Justin S. Carroll 194 -88
7 Chase Cabre 192 -90
8 Taylor Gray 187 -95
9 Max McLaughlin 148 -134
10 Bret Holmes 118 -164
11 Corey Heim 117 -165
12 Derek Griffith 111 -171
13 Brad Smith 101 -181
14 Drew Dollar 94 -188
15 Bob Pawlowski 85 -197
16 Mike Basham 83 -199
17 Michael Self 77 -205
18 Hailie Deegan 76 -206
19 Giovanni Bromante 72 -210
20 Jesse Love 70 -212

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