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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Saturday evening's season opener for the NASCAR Xfinity Series ended in a shower of sparks on the back straightaway, as Sam Mayer ended up flipping over in a spectacular crash just after making a daring move on the last lap of the Beef 300 at Daytona. The 19-year-old driver from Franklin, Wisc. had been going for his first career win.

In an overtime restart, Mayer capitalized on Justin Allgaier building too much of a gap at the white flag, using his own momentum as well as a push from John Hunter Nemechek to gain a massive run on his JR Motorsports teammate. Mayer closed in and then made a daring pass to Allgaier's outside in Turn 2, with Allgaier running him all the way to the outside wall as Mayer squeezed in the gap and took the lead.

Then, things went awry when Mayer was unable to clear himself, which sent Mayer sideways to the left before his car turned to the right off the nose of Austin Hill's car. Mayer's car overturned and then slid on its roof for hundreds of yards down Daytona's backstretch before flipping back onto its wheels. Mayer was unhurt.

Mayer's accident would end up bringing out the caution on the final lap, freezing the field at the moment of caution as the leaders ran three-wide midway down the backstretch. After video review, NASCAR determined that Austin Hill was the leader at the moment of caution, giving him his second-straight win in the Xfinity Series' opening race.

Saturday's Beef 300 was the last of the preliminary races leading into Sunday's Daytona 500, and the second of the weekend to strongly resemble what occurred at Daytona in 2023. The night before Hill's victory, Zane Smith was able to win the Truck Series' season opening NextEra Energy 250 for the second year in a row after persistent rain led to the race being declared official after 79 of 100 laps were completed.

Austin Cindric will attempt to join both Hill and Smith on Sunday as he seeks to go back-to-back in the Daytona 500.