Last week’s near-miss victory at a Pocono Raceway for Haas Factory Team’s Sam Mayer was disappointing in the competitive moment, but all the more motivation for the most successful road course driver in the field as the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series arrives at Naval Base Coronado for Saturday’s first United Rentals Driven to Serve 250 (5 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The 3.4-mile, 16-turn course on the active Naval Base may be just what Mayer, 22, needs to get back into the win column for the first time since the Wisconsin native won at Iowa last August.
After back-to-back multi-win seasons in 2023 and 2024, Mayer had just that single victory last year. However, he always shows up to turn right and left feeling optimistic. Half of his eight career series wins have come on road courses — the four victories most among those entered this weekend.
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He knows he’ll have to contend with his former JR Motorsports team — again — for the trophy, however. JR Motorsports drivers have won every road course race since Watkins Glen in September 2024; an 11-race winning streak. Mayer was part of that run with his former team, claiming his last road-course win at the Charlotte Roval in October 2024. However, 14 of the last 15 road course race winners are not competing in San Diego.
Mayer’s former JR Motorsports teammate, championship leader Justin Allgaier, has three road course wins, and it was he whom Mayer battled for the trophy last week in the closing laps at Pocono. It’s a very reasonable bet this weekend’s California trophy could come down to another duel between the two.
Allgaier, who collected his series-best fifth win at Pocono, has already secured a berth in The Chase with seven regular-season races remaining. The 2024 series champ holds an unprecedented 250-point lead over reigning series champion Richard Childress Racing’s Jesse Love atop the championship standings — a points margin greater than that from second place to 15th place.
Qualifying has proven to be crucial on road courses, with the winner starting on the front row an amazing 52 percent of the time. The polesitter has won 31 percent of those races.
The pass for the win, however, has come within the final five laps in five of the last seven road-course events. Through the opening 17 races of this season, there has not been an overtime finish — the longest such streak in series history.
Of note, Joe Gibbs Racing driver Brandon Jones is on an eight-race streak of top-10 finishes — best in the series — while, conversely, Love’s streak of 30 races running at the finish ended abruptly last week at Pocono with a Lap 1 wreck.
Jeremy Clements will make his 548th series start this weekend — setting an all-time record. The driver of his family-owned Jeremy Clements Racing team made his series debut at Pikes Peak, Colorado, in 2003.
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Practice on the new course is set for Friday at 3:30 p.m. ET (CW App), followed by Kennametal Pole Qualifying at 1 p.m. ET on Saturday (The CW).