Sam Mayer, Anthony Alfredo, and several others are out of Saturday’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series event at Naval Base Coronado, after an incredible violent accident that happened on a restart during the final stage of the United Rentals Driven to Serve 250.
The incident was triggered on a restart at Lap 33, when Sam Mayer, restarting in the second row, tagged the inside wall entering Turn 1, shooting the No. 41 Chevrolet to the left and taking Anthony Alfredo nearly head-on into the barrier at the driver’s left.
With the accident starting right at the front of the pack, the incident collected a ton of other drivers that were running in proximity behind, with 23 drivers of the 37 that started the event being collected in that one wreck at the exit of Turn 2.
Involved in the incident, per The CW: Labbe, Creed, Love, Allgaier, Smith, Sawalich, Crews, Jones, Hill, Burton, Thompson, J. Burton, Perkins, Patterson, R. Sieg, Mayer, Poole, Pardus, Clements, Perez, Green, Honeyman, and Alfredo.
Sam Mayer, the catalyst of the incident, was quickly checked and released from the infield care center, and was visibly dejected and apologetic when speaking to Heather DeBeaux of The CW
“First off, I just want to say I’m sorry to everyone in the field, looking at the people who were involved in the crash there, that’s literally everybody. So, just sorry that all of these people are going to have to put work in now because of my mistake,” Mayer said. “Just brutal. I really hate that for everybody, the Audibel Chevrolet was really good today, and… what am I doing? I gotta be better, I gotta be a lot better, gotta stay locked in no matter what happens to you and keep moving forward. Going to shake this one off, but gotta be better in the future.”
Mayer, in his interview exiting the care center, says he’ll have to make an apology tour around the garage for this incident.
One of the cars that sustained the most damage in the incident was Anthony Alfredo, who was having a stellar run at Naval Base Coronado, and looking like he’d have a chance to fight for his first victory in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and the first win for Viking Motorsports.
Alfredo was restarting on the left side and was the unlucky driver who was in the path of Mayer’s No. 41 when it shot to the left and towards the outside wall, sending the No. 96 Chevrolet head-on into the displaced wall just behind Mayer, destroying the DUDE Wipes Chevrolet.
The Ridgefield, Connecticut-native was loaded into the ambulance on a stretcher after banging up both of his legs in the incident. Alfredo was checked and released from the infield care center and was standing upright when speaking to members of the media.
“That was by far the biggest hit of my entire life, by a mile and I’ve hit pretty hard a few times, just knocked the wind out of me and I banged up my legs a little bit but my left is pretty sore, the infield care center did a great job helping me out there, I just had a little bit of trouble getting out of the race car,” Alfredo said.
Alfredo, Mayer, and William Sawalich were the three drivers whose afternoons came to an end as a result of that massive incident, and they’ll finish 34th through 36th as a result of the contact.
The remainder of the drivers involved were able to continue, albeit very wounded, and in the case of several drivers, multiple laps down.
