“F*ck him and his championship": Jeb Burton warns Sam Mayer of serious repercussions over Martinsville incident

Tempers flared between NASCAR Xfinity drivers Jeb Burton and Sam Mayer during Saturday’s playoff race at Martinsville Speedway. The Jordan Anderson Racing driver even went ahead and fired shots at Mayer through his in-car radio.

By spinning out and cutting his left-rear tire on Lap 92 in Stage 2, Burton brought out the fourth caution of the day after several side-by-side battles for track position. Although not in the playoff picture, Burton was upset.

As reported by Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic, Burton told his team,

“Go ahead and tell the 41 (Sam Mayer) that he's done. He's done when I get to him. F*** him and his championship"

Mayer, who had entered the race ranked seventh in standings and 22 points below the cutoff line, needed to win to make the Championship 4. But he could only bag a P7 finish. Jeb Burton finished the race sixth, marking his eighth top-10 of this season.

Taylor Gray, driver of the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, won the 250-lap event, followed by Sammy Smith, Brandon Jones, Sheldon Creed, and Aric Almirola in the top five. Notably, it was Gray’s first career win in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

With the remaining two spots going to Jesse Love and Carson Kvapil, the field for the upcoming championship race has now been set. Scheduled for this coming Saturday, November 1, the 200-lap race will be televised on CW (7:30 pm ET onwards) with live radio updates on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

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Jeb Burton’s return to Cup Series thwarted by ongoing NASCAR lawsuit

Jeb Burton was supposed to compete in the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, but he couldn’t. It was all due to the ongoing antitrust lawsuit that 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports filed against NASCAR over its charter system.

It all started with the owners of the teams denying their signatures on the latest charter agreement, arguing that NASCAR should do away with monopolistic practices while ending its classic cartel behavior. The final trial is scheduled for December 1. If 23XI and FRM lose, they will have to compete as open teams. If NASCAR loses, a decade-old business model will collapse.

“I was supposed to be in this race today, had it all signed and done,” Jeb Burton wrote on social media. “But this lawsuit situation made it very difficult for us to be able to go and make the race so we backed off. Hopefully next year.”

Jeb Burton competed in just six Cup Series races in the past nine years. His first full season in the Cup Series was back in 2015, when he used to drive for the now-defunct Brad Keselowski Racing. His most recent Cup Series event was the 2024 Cup Series Championship 4 at Phoenix Raceway, where he finished 38th.