Connor Zilisch flat-out dominated Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series Pacific Office Automation 147 at Portland International Raceway, as the driver of the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet led 70 of the 78 laps in the event, and he swept winning Stages 1 and 2 of the race.
However, as is often the case in NASCAR National Series racing, Zilisch would have to overcome adversity in a pair of wild and chaotic late-race restarts to score his eighth win of his rookie campaign.
Race Results
Pacific Office Automation 147 at Portland
Zilisch would celebrate his latest win by poking through the roof hatch, and then, comically, he’d climb from the driver’s side window of the car, and he would carefully place the window net inside the car. The window net move was a nod to a fall that Zilisch took in victory lane two races ago at Watkins Glen International, which led to a broken collarbone for Zilisch.
“It’s really cool, our car was as fast as Xfinity Mobile all day, and to come back two weeks after collarbone surgery, it hurt, but it hurt so good,” Zilisch quipped, stealing a line from Dale Earnhardt’s 1996 return from a broken collarbone and sternum.
On a Lap 69 restart, Zilisch lost the race lead for the first time as Carson Kvapil, Zilisch’s JR Motorsports teammate, shoved Austin Hill down into the first turn of the course, which allowed Hill to go to the race lead. As Zilisch was side-by-side with Kvapil for the runner-up spot, William Sawalich came out of nowhere to make it three-wide going into Turn 1.
Sawalich would make heavy contact with the right rear of Zilisch’s car, which would send him off course in Turn 1.
A chaotic restart sees @_AustinHill claim the lead from @ConnorZilisch! pic.twitter.com/Rp41kTmnyi
— The CW Sports (@TheCW_Sports) August 31, 2025
As Zilisch blended back onto the track surface, he was able to hold off Sawalich for the runner-up spot, but he had developed a severe right rear tire rub.
After a few laps, the rub subsided, and Zilisch began to reel Hill in for the race lead. Then, the caution would come out yet again as Jack Perkins skidded off track and got stuck in the grass in Turn 12 with four laps to go in the race.
This would send the race to overtime, where things would get even nuttier.
On the exit of Turn 12, coming to the start finish line on the overtime restart, Austin Hill would slide up and nearly walled Zilisch coming to the green flag. They kept it straight, but it was a battle of intestinal fortitude heading down into Turn 1. Zilisch refused to be out-braked into the turn.
WHAT A FINISH!!!@ConnorZilisch captures his 8th #XfinitySeries victory of the season with a dramatic overtime win in Portland! pic.twitter.com/IIOZHy14A8
— The CW Sports (@TheCW_Sports) August 31, 2025
As a result, he overcooked the corner and had to cut through the penalty lane for abusing the track limits. However, as Zilisch was doing this, Sammy Smith was spun from the second position by Nick Sanchez, which sent Smith spinning across the track, which slowed the entire group of cars, and allowed Zilisch to pull away with the lead.
He wouldn’t look back as he would score the win by a margin of 1.572 seconds over fellow Rookie of the Year contender William Sawalich.
After climbing from his car after the race, Zilisch admitted that his excursion into the penalty zone actually helped him win the race on Saturday afternoon.
“I guess cut the track, I don’t know,” Zilisch laughed. “So proud of this WeatherTech Chevrolet team. I think this is our fourth win with WeatherTech on the car. It has a “W” on the hood, so no better thing to do than win with it.”
Zilisch explained that he actually practiced the penalty zone earlier in the day, and in practice, he realized that taking the penalty wasn’t a massive penalty as long as you were ready for it. When he knew he wasn’t going to be able to make the turn in overtime, he went for it.
“Yeah, it’s kind of funny. I ran it in practice, and I was like, man, it’s not really that slow,” Zilisch recalled. “As soon as I hit the brakes, I don’t know how I wheel-hopped, and I just kind of committed to it once I knew I wasn’t going to make the corner. And it worked out. I wasn’t really planning on it, but yeah, last resort, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.”
Sanchez would finish third behind Zilisch and Sawalich, while Christian Eckes and Austin Hill would round out the top-five finishers in the event.
Closing out the top-10 of the final running order were Carson Kvapil, Jeb Burton, Austin Green, Blaine Perkins, and Jesse Love.
With one race remaining before the start of the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs, Zilisch holds a 20-point advantage over Justin Allgaier, the defending series champion, for the regular season championship.
After Saturday’s race at Portland, Harrison Burton, who finished the race in 12th, remains the final driver inside of the Playoff cutline as he sits 31 points above his cousin Jeb Burton. Ryan Sieg, Christian Eckes, and Dean Thompson are all mathematically eliminated from making the Playoffs by way of points and will have to rely on a win next weekend at World Wide Technology Raceway in Gateway if they hope to compete in the Playoffs.
Next up for the NASCAR Xfinity Series is a date with World Wide Technology Raceway on Saturday, September 6. That race will be televised on The CW, and coverage will kick off at 7:30 PM ET. The Motor Racing Network (MRN) and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will provide the radio broadcast of that race.
