NASCAR suspends Sam Mayer after post-race incident with Jeb Burton at Martinsville

NASCAR has announced a suspension for Sam Mayer in the Xfinity Series for his intentional wreck of Jeb Burton following the race at Martinsville. The penalty came down on Tuesday afternoon. He will miss the race at Phoenix.

The incident occurred shortly after the race. A bit of drama between Mayer and Burton boiled over after the checkered flag and ended in a wrecked 27 car. Jordan Anderson, Burton’s car owner, even went to scold Mayer on pit road himself. The NASCAR Xfinity Series driver seemed to brush it off.

He won’t be brushing it off anymore. Not after NASCAR’s hefty penalty.

According to Seth Eggert of Motorsports Reference, the suspension for Mayer is the first for a post-race retaliation incident in NASCAR since Jimmy Spencer at Michigan in 2003. And Haas Factory Team will not appeal the decision.

“Although we are disappointed with the results, Haas Factory Team will not appeal the penalty NASCAR issued to Sam Mayer and the No. 41 team following last weekend’s race at Martinsville Speedway,” a Haas Factory Team statement read. “We remain focused on finishing the season out strong at Phoenix Raceway and look forward to contending for a race win with Ryan Sieg at the wheel.”

Sam Mayer opens up on the incident

After the race, Sam Mayer was quick to call out Jeb Burton. He pointed to the week at Talladega as his original reason for disdain.

“The 27 [Jeb Burton] did us no favors last week. He caused a demolition derby and a parking lot on the front straightaway at the fastest race track we go to, and now he just decides to be an absolute dumbass this go around and race a guy with a purple spoiler just awful. It was awful to be around him all day. He’s just fast enough to be really, really annoying but not fast enough to do anything else worth a damn.

“So, sucks to be in that spot around him. But the car was as fast as Xfinity Mobile. … It just wasn’t meant to be. The good Lord blesses us in mysterious ways and I think that I learned a lot tonight. Probably going to get in trouble for this interview already but I’m trying to kind of make up for it. But just really proud of everybody and we’re going to go on to Phoenix with one goal in mind and that’s try win the race and make something out of what we have now.”

Sam Mayer was then asked about his conversation with Jordan Anderson. It was at that point that he admitted what he did. Again, he’s basically asking NASCAR to fine him at this point.

“I honestly hate it for Jordan,” Mayer continued. “Jordan is one of the coolest guys in the garage, he’s worked his tail off to get to this point. Definitely regret wrecking one of his racecars after competition is over. But Jeb needs a wake-up call, that brother, he does not have the it factor, he has the different factor.”

On3’s Jonathan Howard also contributed to this report.