CONCORD, N.C. — Sam Mayer won on The Roval at Charlotte Motor Speedway in a controversial overtime finish Saturday that allowed Mayer to advance in the Xfinity Series playoffs.
It came at the expense of Parker Kligerman, who not only was denied his first career Xfinity Series victory in regulation by a NASCAR scoring call, but also was eliminated from the playoff field.
Kligerman was leading headed toward the white flag that would have signified the final lap of the race when Leland Honeyman ran into the tire barrier. NASCAR could have thrown the caution immediately — that’s how deep into the tire barrier Honeyman was — but the yellow inexplicably didn’t flash until the split second Kligerman was about to cross under the white flag that would have made the race official.
Kligerman’s team was celebrating on pit road when NASCAR ruled the driver had not taken the white flag and the race would go to overtime. It was a record-tying 14th overtime race of the Xfinity Series this season.
Mayer, who won this race a year ago, caught Kligerman in the two-lap sprint to the finish to win the race and advance in the playoffs. The two made contact on Mayer’s winning pass, which caused enough damage that Kligerman, who is in his final season of full-time NASCAR racing, faded to a sixth-place finish.
“I want to cry,” Kligerman said, “but I’m not gonna. I really love this, and I really, really wanted that. It would have meant the world.”
When shown the replay of how close he’d come to winning the race before the late call on the caution, Kligerman, who is a television analyst for the Cup races, was incredulous.
“What!” he said in disbelief. “I’ve seen enough from the TV side to know the heart-wrench and guttedness that people go through on something like that.”
AJ Allmendinger, who had been a perfect 4 for 4 on The Roval in the Xfinity Series, finished second and was followed by pole sitter Shane van Gisbergen, who despite a third-place finish was eliminated from the playoffs. Allmendinger and Van Gisbergen both race in Sunday’s Cup Series race, with Van Gisbergen on the pole.
He was knocked out by Jesse Love, who finished 19th but passed enough cars on the final two laps to eliminate Van Gisbergen by two points. Kligerman, Van Gisbergen, Sheldon Creed and Riley Herbst were eliminated.
Creed and Herbst were in earlier accidents and left to watch the finish for their fate from inside the garage.
Sammy Smith and Chandler Smith were the only two drivers already locked into the round of eight, leaving only six spots open in the playoffs on Charlotte’s hybrid road/oval course.
Justin Allgaier, who was below the cutline at the start of the race, finished seventh and advanced. With the points reset, Allgaier is now the points leader headed into the opening race of the next round next Saturday in Las Vegas.
The top seven finishers Saturday at Charlotte were playoff drivers.
Knight’s Choice has won the 2024 Melbourne Cup, defeating Warp Speed and Okita Soushi in a thrilling finish at Flemington on Tuesday afternoon.
The massive outsider saluted for Irish-born jockey Robbie Dolan, who claimed victory in what was his first ever ride in the “race that stops a nation”.
In what was a gripping 164th staging of Australia’s most-watched thoroughbred race, Knight’s Choice proved too strong in a sprint to the finish, pulling over the top of Okita Soushi and holding off Warp Speed by the barest of margins.
Trained by John Symons and Sheila Laxon on the Sunshine Coast, Knight’s Choice was well down the betting across all markets. It was Laxon’s second Melbourne Cup triumph after she trained Ethereal to victory 23 years ago.
“This is the pinnacle of all pinnacles, this is the Melbourne Cup,” Symons said.
Zardozi rounded out the first four.
As the field approached the final few hundred metres it appeared as though Jamie Kah, aboard Okita Soushi, would become just the second woman to ride the winner in the Melbourne Cup. But Okita Soushi was swallowed up as the winning post neared, with Knight’s Choice beating Warp Speed to the line after a peach of a ride from Dolan.
“We’ll be singing tonight after a few beers,” Dolan, who was a contestant on the 2022 edition of “The Voice”, told Channel 9.
“It is amazing and a lot of people doubted this little horse. Doubt me now.”
Laxon was more than happy with the ride, with Dolan threading his way through the field from near last on the bend.
“He started the race, and he knew how to ride him. We didn’t give him instructions, he knew what to do,” she said.
“I love it being down for the Australians. The Australian horse has done it, and Robbie is Australian now as well, so I’m thrilled to win the Cup, and it is the people’s Cup, and that’s what it is all about.”
Knight’s Choice is just the sixth Australian-bred horse to win since 1993, and the first since Vow and Declare back in 2019.
The five-year-old gelding carried only 51kg to victory and was making its first start over the 3200m trip. It had most recently come off a fifth-placed finish in the Bendigo Cup, but had showed sparing little form this preparation otherwise.
“I watched every Melbourne Cup for the last 40 years. I thought my best chance was to get him to stay the trip and, hopefully, he can run home and do the quick sectionals he can on a good track and he proved everybody wrong,” Dolan said.
ESPN baseball reporter. Covered the Washington Wizards from 2014 to 2016 and the Washington Nationals from 2016 to 2018 for The Washington Post before covering the Los Angeles Dodgers and MLB for the Los Angeles Times from 2018 to 2024.
Thirteen free agents received qualifying offers from their former teams Monday before free agency officially began at 5 p.m. E.T., sources told ESPN’s Jeff Passan. Among those tendered the offer, which is a one-year, $21.05 million contract for the 2025 season:
The players have until 4 p.m. ET on Nov. 19 to decide whether to accept the offer, which is calculated annually based on the mean average annual value of Major League Baseball’s 125 biggest contracts.
The most sought-after free agents have historically rejected the proposal to enter free agency in search of a multiyear contract. Just 13 of 131 players have accepted a qualifying offer since it was introduced following the 2012 season. Last year, all seven players presented the deal, valued at $20.325 million, turned it down.
Clubs can give a player a qualifying offer only if the player was with the team continuously from opening day and has never received a qualifying offer before.
Teams that lose a player who received a qualifying offer receive a compensation pick. Clubs that sign players who rejected the qualifying offer before the amateur draft the following year must surrender draft compensation and could also lose international bonus pool money. The possible penalties have not affected top-tier free agents’ earning potential, but they have hampered the market for midtier players.
Teams that surpassed the competitive balance tax line in 2024 and sign a player tied to a qualifying offer stand to lose their second- and fifth-highest picks in the upcoming amateur draft. They also lose $1 million from their international bonus pool. Revenue-sharing organizations lose their third-highest draft selection. The others lose their second-highest draft pick and $500,000 from their international bonus pool.