“The 41 slammed the s— out of me.” These words were all that the fans needed to get into a rowdy mood. During the Hard Rock Bet 300 race, Kyle Larson wanted to fulfill his three-pronged mission – a weekend sweep at Homestead-Miami Speedway. He was well on his way to do so, having a 16-second lead over the rest of the field. But Sam Mayer “mistimed” a restart and snatched his hopes. That left a bitter aftertaste for Larson’s fans – who maybe took it too far.

Kyle Larson’s stardom in NASCAR is undeniable. Being Rick Hendrick’s ‘golden boy’, his achievements range from a 10-win 2021 championship to the 1100-mile Double attempt. The height of his laurels matches the giddily high excitement of his fans. But their enthusiasm probably bubbled over into too much negativity, as Sam Mayer recently revealed.

Kyle Larson’s fans send chilling reactions

The 21-year-old Xfinity Series racer has had a fruitful career so far. Sam Mayer was part of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Chevrolet camp since 2021 and accrued 7 race victories over 2023 and 2024. From 2025, he is part of Ford under the Haas Factory Team and is still adjusting to the No. 41 race car. However, his excellence is veritably visible – Mayer has picked up four top-fives so far this season. So his drive at Homestead-Miami was indeed to topple Kyle Larson’s pace. When Taylor Gray caused the caution with 8 laps to go, Mayer collided with Larson’s No. 17 car – throwing them both out of contention.

Eventually, Justin Allgaier went on to win the race. Post-race, we witnessed Kyle Larson fuming at Sam Mayer, and the latter also apologized. Despite an attempt to resolve things between themselves, fans were apparently not satisfied. In a recent episode of ‘The Money Lap’, Mayer revealed that a few literally ‘fanatic’ fans of Larson hounded him with threats. He said, “I’ll say that the hardcore fans – the DMs I have are freaking unreal. I don’t want to say too much, but there are a lot of people out there who are wishing that I am not alive right now. It’s pretty crazy.”

Well, Sam Mayer may have been aggressive several times. For instance, he pushed Parker Retzlaff in Martinsville and collided with Riley Herbst in Iowa. But Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s former driver is still a good driver given his stats. So Mayer continued that Larson’s fans were expecting too much lenience from him: “So that’s what’s frustrating to me – I’m a full-time Xfinity guy. Like, he came down to my territory. And we were playing this game, that’s great, that’s fine. But when those fans come down as well and decide to have their word in it, it’s full-on frustrating. It’s just ’cause I’m trying to do my own thing. Like I’m not in the Cup Series yet because I’m still learning.” 

Up next on the schedule is Martinsville Speedway. The 0.526-mile Paperclip track has tight corners with short and flat turns with 11 degrees of banking. So navigating this can be tricky. But Sam Mayer is determined to use the same approach he used in Homestead, despite Kyle Larson‘s wild fans. “But yeah, it’s like, let me do my thing, man. We’re going to figure it out and work on it. And go to Martinsville with the same type of restarts there where you’re going to see a lot of games played. So I’m going to take what I learned last week and apply it to Martinsville and try to go and catch the speed.”

Despite the Larson camp tipping over the balance in their reactions, Sam Mayer also has support. Prominent NASCAR Cup veterans came to support him.

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The man was simply trying his best

Well, one way to look at the whole fiasco is that Sam Mayer deliberately mashed Kyle Larson’s plans. Another way to look at it would be that he had no other choice. Before 2009, NASCAR’s restart policy stipulated a single-file restart on the outside for lead cars while others would get the inside lane. But now cars can execute a double-file restart – creating many possibilities for drama. That is why NASCAR Hall of Famer Mark Martin blamed the restart rule rather than Sam Mayer. What is more, 54-time Cup Series race winner Denny Hamlin blamed Kyle Larson instead. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver has battled with Larson himself several times. For instance, remember the 2023 Pocono race, where Hamlin sent Larson into the wall.

This time as well, Denny Hamlin quipped that Larson failed because he could not hold on. He said in an ‘Actions Detrimental’ episode: “Sometimes driver error is what makes restarts great, and driver error is what caused Kyle to not get the restart he needed. He was critical of Sam Mayer, but Sam…Sam’s doing everything he can to try to roll on him and he’s trying to predict when the 17 [Larson] is gonna pull off so he can give him a push — or give him a push, stay attached and as soon as they get to the start/finish line, pull out of line and try to go three-wide. And that’s where the 17 I thought was most vulnerable to the 41 [Mayer] was going to be on restarts. I thought that Mayer was the only real challenger to Larson on Saturday, and it turned out to be the only challenge to him winning the race.”

Clearly, there is a limit to Sam Mayer’s list of haters. With prominent Cup Series veterans on his side, the Xfinity Series star can look forward to the upcoming races.