A week ago, Connor Zilisch was left shaking his head in disappointment as he lost out in a late-race duel with Shane van Gisbergen in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at the Chicago Street Course. Fast forward to Saturday’s Pit Boss/FoodMaxx 250 at Sonoma Raceway, and it was Zilisch who was on the winning end of a phenomenal late-race battle with Van Gisbergen.
Race Results: NASCAR Xfinity Series Pit Boss/FoodMaxx 250 at Sonoma
“Yeah, man. First, hats off to Shane. That was awesome,” Zilisch said after the race. “All race long, I felt like we were racing each other with respect. I wheel-hopped a little bit going into [Turn] 7 that one time and got into him, but other than that, it was awesome to get to race against him, finally and battle with him the whole race long.”
The 18-year-old driver held off Van Gisbergen, who started from the pole, over the final 29-lap green flag run of the race to score the win. There were several close calls, including some slight contact between the two drivers throughout the race, but in the end, both were able to bring their JR Motorsports Chevrolets home in one piece for a 1-2 finish.
Zilisch gained the lead and advantage over Van Gisbergen during the final pit sequence of the race just before the end of Stage 2. That allowed the young phenom to control the race in the final Stage, which allowed him to play defense in the closing laps. Zilisch credited his race team for putting him in a position to succeed down the stretch.
“So proud of this Roto-Rooters Chevrolet No. 88 team. We did such an awesome job all weekend long, just executing. And our car was as fast as Xfinity Mobile from the moment we got here, and we made all the right adjustments, and here we are in victory lane. It feels good,” Zilisch explained.
While he missed out on the win, Van Gisbergen was all smiles after the thrilling battle with his JR Motorsports and Trackhouse Racing teammate Zilisch. He knows he could have been more aggressive and likely won, but he didn’t want to take the win like that.
“Yeah, but I didn’t want to be. Congrats to those guys, what an awesome race,” Van Gisbergen said. “I hope everyone enjoyed that. Yeah, I gave him a bump into [Turn] 7, wheel-hopped, and probably could have taken it, but I just waited. I didn’t want to do it like that. And then we just raced down the hill. But what an awesome race. Thank you to QuadLock, Chevy, and JR Motorsports. I had a blast all day, really, really fun.”
William Sawalich, who has had a rough rookie season behind the wheel of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota GR Supra, claimed an impressive third-place finish behind the 1-2 of Zilisch and SVG. After a win in Friday’s ARCA Menards Series West event at Sonoma, it was a very successful weekend for the 18-year-old.
“It was a great weekend for us, everybody at Joe Gibbs Racing who was on my team,” Sawalich said. “So, I can’t thank the ARCA guys enough, yesterday, and the Xfinity guys today. They put together a good Sound Gear Toyota GR Supra that was as fast as Xfinity Mobile. Just a great, great day to be honest.”
Nick Sanchez came home in the fourth position, which meant that three of the top-four finishers in the race were NASCAR Xfinity Series Rookie of the Year contenders.
Riley Herbst, Justin Allgaier, Taylor Gray, Carson Kvapil, Sammy Smith, and Sheldon Creed rounded out the top-10 finishers in the race.
For Gray, who came into the day on the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs cutline, the rally to finish seventh was important. The driver of the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota initially qualified in the 11th position on Friday, but a blown engine during his qualifying run led to the driver dropping to the rear of the field prior to the green flag in Saturday’s race.
With the rally to a seventh-place finish, Gray leapfrogged Jeb Burton, who finished 20th, in the championship standings. Gray sits 11th in the 12-driver Playoff Grid, and is six points above Burton, who is the final driver inside the cutline, and he is 22 points above Harrison Burton, who is the first driver outside the cutline.
Defending Series champion Justin Allgaier finished sixth, and in doing so held onto his regular-season point lead, which now sits at 59 points over Sam Mayer.
Next up for the NASCAR Xfinity Series is the BetRivers 200 at Dover Motor Speedway, which is scheduled for Saturday, July 19 at 4:30 PM ET. That race will be televised on The CW, while the Performance Radio Network (PRN) and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will provide the radio broadcast.
