Mayer goes back-to-back in Hy-Vee Perks 250

Sam Mayer was not perfect in Saturday’s Hy-Vee Perks 250 in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Iowa Speedway.

But when it came to restarts, there was no better in the field, and Mayer took control of a restart on lap 221 and never trailed again to record the first victory for the Haas Factory team and the first triumph in the series for Ford this season.

It was Mayer’s second straight win at Iowa and the eighth victory of his career.

“We’ve put in a lot of work to chase checkered flags and this feels awesome,” Mayer said. “I can’t wait to walk into the shop on Sunday or Monday and see how excited the team is because they’ve worked so hard to get here.”

Mayer drove a Chevrolet for JR Motorsports to the win last season. This season’s victory came in the No. 41 Ford for Haas Factory. It also snapped rookie Connor Zilisch’s three-race win streak.

Mayer passed pole winner and runner-up Jesse Love on lap 223, but the eighth caution of the night forced another restart on lap 234.

Like he did all night, Mayer dominated the restart and drove away from Love and the rest of the field for the win.

“We were really good most of the way but felt like a third-place car the whole way,” Mayer said. “We made some adjustments late, and the car just fired off from there.

“Our restarts were awesome. I went from 17th to ninth in one of them. We have confidence in the race car right now.”

Mayer was the sixth-fastest car in practice and improved one spot to fifth in qualifying. But a mistake during a pit stop dropped him way down in the field.

After finishing fourth in the first stage, Mayer overshot his No. 1 pit stall, which sits at a difficult angle around a curve near the exit from pit road. Mayer restarted 16th on Lap 71 but worked his way back through the field and regained the fourth spot by the end of Stage 2.

It was one of two pit-stop mishaps for Mayer and his team. Neither mattered though as he made up for it before the end of the 250-lap race.

“The good thing is one of them was my fault and one of them wasn’t my fault,” Mayer said. “We can all take some blame. But we have that get-along attitude that we will fix it as a team. We lost 15 spots on the first stop because I couldn’t get into the pit box.”

Ross Chastain, who won the second stage, finished third behind Mayer and Love, with Zilisch running fourth and Harrison Burton taking fifth.

Zilisch’s bid for a fourth straight Xfinity Series win ran into immediate trouble during the first stage break.

After winning Stage 1, Zilisch brought his No. 88 Chevrolet to pit road for service, but the front tire changer failed to get all lug nuts tight on the left-front wheel.

Zilisch restarted 25th on Lap 71 and initially made rapid progress through the field.

As the second stage progressed, Zilisch stalled out in traffic, with his Camaro getting increasingly loose behind other cars.

The 19-year-old finished the second stage in 17th and restarted the final stage in that same spot on lap 130.

Zilisch got as high as third and drove in the top five for a good portion of the final 50 laps but couldn’t overcome a succession of late restarts.

Zilisch’s car also broke loose in a three-wide scenario with teammates Chastain and Justin Allgaier on lap 214. Zilisch eventually knocked Chastain sideways into Allgaier’s Chevrolet.

With Allgaier finishing 16th, he and Zilisch are now tied for the series points lead at 772 with four races left in the regular season.

Mayer (756) closed to within 16 points in third. Love (702) and Austin Hill (650) complete the top five in the standings.

“I do think I have a chance to win the title now,” Mayer said. “We hate that (Allgaier) had issues. He congratulated me in the garage, but I hate that for him. It looks better for us now than it did a few weeks ago. If we do our job, I think we’ll be right there.”

Burton took a major step toward the playoffs with his second top-five finish. He’s now 11th on the playoff grid, 17 points ahead of 12th-place Ryan Sieg and 19 points ahead of cousin Jeb Burton, the first driver below the elimination line.

Jeb Burton finished 29th and one lap down Saturday after dealing with a cracked track bar and suffering through the afternoon with an ill-handling car.

Carson Hocevar finished sixth, followed by Sheldon Creed, Sieg, Carson Kvapil and Christian Eckes.

Chastain led the most laps at 120. Zilisch led 62 laps, Love was in front for 31 and Mayer led the final 28 laps.

Notes: Mayer won last year’s Xfinity Series race at Iowa and also won a K&N race on the 7/8-mile oval back in 2019. He first raced in Newton in 2018. “I fell in love with the place immediately,” Mayer said. “It was some of the most fun I’ve had in a race car. When you show up at a place you like, you just run a little better. It’s a special place that has been really good to me.” … Mayer became the ninth driver to win an Xfinity race this season. Zilisch leads the series with five wins, while Hill and Allgaier have three each. … Hill did not race this weekend after being suspended for one race by NASCAR for intentionally crashing Aric Almirola last weekend. As a result, Hill also lost all of the playoff points he accumulated during the regular season and will start the playoffs as a lower seed despite his three victories. … Cedar Rapids native Joey Gase placed 27th. He was one of 15 drivers who were at least one lap down in the race. … William Sawalich and Hocevar started second and third, respectively, but Sawalich finished 11th and Hocevar took sixth.