Nascar star suffers terrifying upside-down crash after last lap move for lead

20 February 2023 , 18:41

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Sam Mayer's car slid on its roof down a straight during the season-opening race at Daytona (Image: Phelan M Ebenhack/AP/REX/Shutterstock)

NASCAR star Sam Mayer was involved in a horrific car crash to end his chances of victory on the last lap at the iconic Daytona International Speedway on Saturday night.

Mayer, a highly-rated up and coming driver, was racing in the Xfinity Series season-opening race: the Beef 300. The 19-year-old was well-placed to secure some big points until his race dramatically ended on the final lap.

After the race went into overtime, Mayer attempted to overtake the leader - and his teammate - Justin Allgaier in an effort to win the race. However, contact between Mayer and the eventual winner Austin Hill caused the youngster to spin before his Chevrolet flipped onto its roof, which brought out a race-ending caution.

NASCAR then had to intervene and review timing and scoring to determine the leader when the yellow was thrown, given how tight the race ended. The governing body needed approximately 10 minutes to decide Hill was ahead of Allgaier when the race ended, with Mayer’s teammate forced to settle for second place.

“You can't lift, it's last lap,” Hill - the race winner - said afterwards. “’ hope Sam's OK, man. That was a heck of a flip.”

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Sam Mayer was attempting to take the lead on the final lap when his car flipped upside down (Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)

Mayer was cleared from NASCAR’s medical center within the infield, with remarkably no significant injuries from the scary scene. Speaking to FOX, he said: “It's been quite a few years since I've been upside down.

“That was probably the hardest lick I've taken and I thought I'd taken the hardest one I could. That was harder, so I guess there's always a higher ceiling somewhere.”

The win for Hill was huge after the Richard Childress Racing driver failed to qualify for the Daytona 500 earlier in the week. It was the second successive year that Hill has won the Xfinity Series season-opener - and he went from last to first to pull it off.

Andrew Gamble