Mayer sweeps at Thunder Valley in the ARCA Menards Series and ARCA East Bush Beans 200 on Thursday night at Bristol Motor Speedway.
It’s hard to top winning three times at a race track in a single season, a feat Sam Mayer was able to finish off last Thursday night.
Mayer scores his first career NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series victory to start the evening. He then climbs into the No. 21 Starr Children’s Fund Chevrolet to drive to his fourth straight ARCA Menards Series win in the Bush’s Beans 200.
The Bush’s Beans 200 also counts toward the ARCA Menards Series East — where Mayer has four wins of the five races to move closer to back-to-back East crowns. In the Sioux Chief Showdown, Mayer extends his lead heading into the finale in two weeks at Memphis International Raceway.
Earlier in the week, Mayer and JR Motorsports announced he is making his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut for the organization in 2020 and will compete with them full-time in 2021.
Before he gets there, he has some unfinished business with GMS Racing.
Mayer was able to drive past his GMS Racing teammate Brett Moffitt to steal the show in the playoff opener for the trucks, in just his seventh career start. He then goes straight from Victory Lane to the grid for the ARCA Menards Series race.
The Bush Beans 200 Results
Leading four times for a race-high 116 laps on Thursday, Mayer was able to pass Bret Holmes on lap 156 to take the lead for the final time. Crossing the line 2.572 seconds ahead of Ty Gibbs Mayer sweeps both the Truck and ARCA races at Bristol.
Gibbs led 53 laps and came home with his third runner-up finish. It was his tenth top-five in 15 starts that includes four wins.
Mayer won twice — July 31 and Aug. 2 — at Ohio’s Toledo Speedway for the ARCA Menards Series. Those victories kick off an eight-race span in ARCA where he has six wins and two third-place finishes. He also has an East win at Dover International Speedway, following that with wins at Missouri’s Lebanon I-44, back at Toledo and then Bristol.
ARCA Menards Series Point Standings ARCA East Point Standings
Mayer leads Gibbs by six points in the Sioux Chief Showdown and by 26 in the East.
Max McLaughlin starting 20th, was charging to the front and leading 19 laps, before settling for a third, while Mason Diaz finishes fourth.
Michael Self was able to rebound from late-race damage to rally for a fifth-place finish — his tenth top-five in 16 races. Combining with Bret Holmes’ eighth-place run, Self retakes the ARCA Menards Series lead by one point with four races remaining.
Hailie Deegan finishes sixth, with Taylor Gray, Holmes, Derek Griffith and Justin S. Carroll rounding out the top-ten.
Up Next
The ARCA Menards Series turns right back around and races Saturday in the Toyota 200 presented by Crosley Brands at Indiana’s Winchester Speedway. The Sioux Chief Showdown champion will be crowned in the Sioux Chief Power PEX 200 at Memphis on Sept. 26. And the ARCA Menards East finale is in the Pensacola 200 presented by Inspectra Thermal Solutions at Florida’s 5 Flags Speedway on Oct. 10th.