NEWTON, Iowa — Sam Mayer took the lead from Riley Herbst on the overtime restart to win Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Iowa Speedway.
It was the second win of the season for Mayer, and sixth career win in the series.
Mayer, who led 47 laps in the 250-lap race, pulled ahead of Herbst on the restart after John Hunter Nemechek‘s crash six laps from the finish.
Corey Heim finished third. Sammy Smith and Sheldon Creed rounded out the top five. Series points leader Cole Custer finished sixth.
Saturday’s race marked the return of the Xfinity Series to Iowa Speedway. The series had raced at the track from 2009-19, but returned as part of the weekend that includes Sunday’s inaugural NASCAR Cup Series race at the .875-mile oval, which received a partial repaving in the turns in the spring.
The race was slowed by nine caution flags, most caused by tire troubles similar to those that caused problems for drivers during Friday’s Cup Series practice. AJ Allmendinger, Jeb Burton, Jesse Love and Justin Allgaier had crashes after their right front tires blew out. Austin Hill was running in second place when he crashed on lap 217 after his left front went flat. Nemechek crashed with six laps left when a left front tire went down after contact with Creed a few laps earlier.
Chandler Smith won the first two stages, leading 131 laps. But Smith slid back through the field after the start of the final stage and couldn’t recover, finishing eighth.
Shane van Gisbergen, who came in having won the last two races in the series, struggled all weekend and finished 34th. Van Gisbergen started at the back of the field after going to a backup car because of a crash during Friday’s practice. He was lapped early in the race, and then on lap 86 crashed coming out of Turn 2 and was out of the race.