In what became the second closest finish in NASCAR Xfinity Series history, Sam Mayer pulled off a dramatic last-lap pass of Ryan Sieg to claim his first victory of the 2024 season in Saturday’s Andy’s Frozen Custard 300 at Texas Motor Speedway.

The margin of victory was a mere 0.002 seconds as Mayer’s No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet and Sieg’s No. 39 Ford drag-raced side-by-side across the finish line. Officials had to take a second look at the photo finish before declaring the 20-year-old Mayer the winner in his fifth career Xfinity triumph.

It was a heartbreaking result for Sieg, who led 17 of the final 18 laps and seemed poised to finally breakthrough for his first career Xfinity win in his 342nd series start. He had built over a 1-second lead on Mayer with just 9 laps remaining before Mayer began chipping away, setting up their dramatic last-lap duel.

“That’s absolutely unreal,” an emotional Mayer said after the race. “This team has had so much adversity this year, to come to a place I’m good at and get it done like that, it took every ounce of me.”

While Sieg was left devastated, coming so close to the elusive win again, he was encouraged by his team’s pace. “It sucks, we had a really good car,” he said. “Just got to keep fighting, we’re right there.”

Justin Allgaier led a race-high 117 laps and swept both stage wins, but had to settle for third after dominating much of the day for JR Motorsports. Teammates Mayer and Brandon Jones also had strong runs as the team rebounded from a rough start to 2024.

The Xfinity Series now heads to Talladega Superspeedway next Saturday for the Ag-Pro 300, where Mayer, Sieg, Allgaier and A.J. Allmendinger (finished 4th) will vie for the $100,000 Dash 4 Cash bonus.