By David Morgan, Associate Editor
When the checkered flag flew on Saturday night’s NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoff elimination race at Martinsville, both Sammy Smith and Sam Mayer would find themselves on the outside looking in, but the path taken by the two could not have been more different.
Smith ended the spring Martinsville race in a shouting match with Taylor Gray after the two had a run-in during overtime, which saw Gray spun off the nose of Smith’s JR Motorsports Chevrolet, keeping both drivers out of victory lane.
Fast forward to Saturday night and it was shaping up to be déjà vu all over again with Gray leading in overtime and Smith needing a win to be able to advance into the Championship 4.
This time around, however, Smith took the high road and raced Gray clean to the finish, with Gray claiming his maiden win in the Xfinity Series and the runner-up finish for Smith meaning he would lose out on a chance at the title by just four points.
“Just maybe try to have a better restart, but yeah, it’s unfortunate,” Smith said of what he could have done to get past Gray for the win. “It sucks to not be able to make the final four. I feel like I deserve, my team deserves it. We’re good enough to be in the final four and we weren’t good enough in the Playoffs to do that.
“…It just really sucks. We’ll regroup and just keep digging.”
Smith added that he wouldn’t have wanted to win in the fashion necessary to punch his ticket to the championship finale if it meant moving Gray and reopening old wounds between the two.
“I wasn’t close enough to move him the right way. If I move him like I did in the spring, I’m going to get black-balled and get thrown out of the Playoffs anyways and probably parked. So, obviously, I didn’t want to do it that way anyways and he was the better car today.”
On the other hand, was Mayer, who also needed a win to be able to make it through to Phoenix, but finished the race in fourth place and would be eliminated.
The story of his race, however, quickly shifted from his Playoff elimination to post-race theatrics that occurred between himself and Jeb Burton after the two had a couple of run-ins on track during the race and Mayer took it upon himself to seek out and spin Burton’s Jordan Anderson Racing Chevrolet after the checkered flag flew.
.@sam_mayer_ was not happy with @JebBurtonRacing after the race. pic.twitter.com/PIrQHCTTY9
— The CW Sports (@TheCW_Sports) October 26, 2025
Mayer didn’t hold back in his post-race interview as he verbally lashed out at the way Burton had raced him both on Saturday at Martinsville and last weekend at Talladega.
“I was just giving it all I had right there. The 27 [Burton] did us no favors,” said Mayer.
“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 decides to just be an absolute dumbass this go around and race a guy with a purple spoiler, like, 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. It sucks to be in that spot around him…everyone that’s behind me and in my circle, it makes me very pleased to be a part of this group. It just wasn’t meant to be.
“The Good Lord blesses us in mysterious ways and I think that I learned a lot tonight. I’m probably going to get in trouble for this interview already, but I’m trying to kind of make up for it. Just really proud of everybody. We’re going to go on to Phoenix with one goal in mind and that’s try to win the race and make something out of what we have now.”
After Mayer climbed from his car, Anderson marched down to express his displeasure with the post-race incident and additional damage to one of his cars.
Something Mayer admitted he felt bad about with how everything had transpired with him and Burton.
“I honestly hate it for Jordan,” said Mayer. “Jordan is one of the coolest guys in the garage. He’s worked his tail off to get to this point and I definitely regret wrecking one of his race cars after the competition is over.
“But Jeb needs a wake-up call, that brother, he does not have the it factor, he has the different factor.”
For his side of the story, Burton took to social media after the race to explain how thing went down from his point-of-view.
“The incident with the 41 [Mayer], at the beginning of the race, he was acting like a child and shipped me into the corner because he was I guess mad about the accident that happened last week,” said Burton.
“So, at the end of the race when I caught him, it was time to race him like he raced me. And I moved him, I didn’t wreck him and he didn’t like it. Then after the race, he wrecked us.
“I thought that was pretty funny, so I’m sure he’s going to be in trouble for that. I’m sure he’s just disappointed that he didn’t make the Playoffs and was acting like a child. It is what it is.”
