The hype surrounding 18-year-old phenom Connor Zilisch is very real.
It wasn’t a perfect afternoon for the Mooresville, North Carolina-native, with a penalty that sent him to the rear of the field to start Stage 2, and several instances of on-track contact, but in the end, the JR Motorsports driver was able to pull into Victory Lane.
“Yeah, that was tough,” Zilisch said post-race. “That was way harder than I wanted it to be, I did not drive a clean race at all, sorry to everyone I hit, I was mentally fogged halfway through that race and glad we were able to fight back.”
Zilisch, who entered the weekend as the favorite to win Saturday’s Focused Health 250, led a race-high 26 of 65 laps on his way to the victory, his second in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in seven career starts.
The Xfinity Series rookie had quite a bit of adversity to overcome in the middle portion of the event, after being assessed a tail-end of the longest line penalty for making a pit stop while the pits were closed.
Zilisch was the unfortunate victim of an ill-timed caution for Baltazar Leguizamon stopped on the racetrack, which had the No. 88 Chevrolet attempt to enter pit road before it closed, crossing the commitment line mere seconds before the light turned yellow.
RACE RESULTS: 2025 Focused Health 250 at COTA
The drama didn’t end there, though, as Zilisch had to drive through the NASCAR Xfinity Series field in order to return to the front of the pack with about 20 laps to go, where things got complicated while battling for second with Corey Heim.
On Lap 45, Zilisch made wheel-to-wheel contact with the No. 24 Toyota GR Supra, sending Heim for a spin in Turn 15 and giving the WeatherTech Chevrolet some massive damage in the process, which looked like a potentially dire situation.
Once the tire rub cleared itself on the right-front fender, Zilisch was able to reel in his JR Motorsports teammate Carson Kvapil, who had a fantastic run in his first NASCAR Xfinity Series road course event.
The driver of the No. 88 made the final pass for the lead with 10 laps remaining, and was able to conserve his equipment in the closing laps to hold off defending NASCAR Cup Series winner at COTA, William Byron, driving the No. 17 for Hendrick Motorsports.
Byron managed to close a four-plus second gap to 1.639 seconds at the finish, collecting another top-five finish for the No. 17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet.
Sam Mayer made a late-race surge to finish in third-place at Circuit of The Americas, continuing a strong run of road course finishes for the Haas Factory Team driver.
Austin Hill, winner of the series’ latest race at Atlanta, finished in fourth, with Christian Eckes bringing his beat up CELSIUS Chevrolet home for a fifth-place result.
Jesse Love brought home a sixth-place finish, with Taylor Gray in seventh, Ross Chastain rebounding from a speeding penalty during a green-flag pit stop to finish eighth, and William Sawalich finishing ninth.
Rounding out the top-10 was Blaine Perkins, who in his third race for Jordan Anderson Racing picked up a top-10 finish, his first on a road course and the first since Martinsville in 2022.
Carson Kvapil, driving the No. 1 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet, had an unexpected run on the Austin, Texas road course, leading seven laps and being in position for a top-five late, until a cut tire forced him to make an unscheduled pit stop, relegating him to 23rd.
Austin Hill leaves Circuit of The Americas (COTA) with the points lead in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, holding a 13-point margin over Richard Childress Racing teammate Jesse Love in second.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series will head to Phoenix Raceway for the fourth event of the season. The event will take place next Saturday, March 8 at 4:30 PM ET on The CW, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
