There seemingly aren’t enough adjectives to describe what we’ve seen from Connor Zilisch this season. The NASCAR Xfinity Series Rookie of the Year contender is up to nine wins on the season following his latest triumph, which came on Saturday night in the Nu Way 200 Sauced by Blues Hog at World Wide Technology Raceway.
Race Results: Nu Way 200 Sauced by Blues Hog
Zilisch, 19, started from the pole, led a race-high 121 laps in the 160-lap event, and he was able to hold off a hungry William Sawalich in the closing laps to score the win by a margin of victory of 1.506 seconds.
While it was another dominant performance, Zilisch admittedly had to sweat it out through a couple of late-race restarts to pull off the win.
“Yeah, that one was stressful,” Zilisch said. “Man, that’s awesome. Four [wins] in a row, I think that’s seven of the last eight for our WeatherTech Chevrolet team. Thank you to WeatherTech. It’s Cooper MacNeil’s birthday tomorrow, so happy birthday. It’s my mom’s birthday today, so happy birthday, mom. I love you. Yeah, man, that’s awesome. Four in a row.”
With a win in the regular-season finale, Zilisch secured the regular-season championship, and he’ll enter the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs 59 points above the cutline. While it’s unrealistic to expect him to continue the torrid pace he’s been on recently, Zilisch says his team keeps putting him in a position to win, which has made him a believer.
“Man, this is going to be tough to keep up, honestly. It’s rare that you can go on a run like this,” Zilisch explained. “Every week, I show up and think, man, this is the weekend that we go run eighth and just aren’t great, but every weekend we show up, and we’re a winning race car. And my pit crew executes, my team executes, and everybody does their job, and we end up doing burnouts on the frontstretch.”
As Zilisch was dodging cameramen while performing his celebratory victory burnouts, Sawalich was thinking about what could have been. The Joe Gibbs Racing rookie contender, who had a sluggish start to the season, caught fire on track as he finished runner-up in each of the last two races of the regular season. But it wasn’t enough; he needed a win to advance to the Playoffs.
Being so close to a Playoff berth is upsetting, for sure.
“Yeah, I mean a little bit, but it is what it is,” Sawalich said. “[Connor Zilisch] was on rails tonight. I think he was definitely the best car all night. But our Soundgear GR Supra was as fast as Xfinity Mobile tonight. I mean, didn’t make the Playoffs, but we certainly gave them a run for their money, aggressive all night. Had good long run speed, short run speed, whatever you want to say. But proud of the boys to bring me a good car, and there’s always next year.”
Christian Eckes nabbed an impressive third-place result behind the wheel of the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet on Saturday night, while Brandon Jones and Jesse Love finished fourth and fifth.
Aric Almirola, Daniel Hemric, Parker Retzlaff, Corey Day, and Daniel Dye rounded out the top-10 finishers.
The 12-driver NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoff Field is officially set, as Taylor Gray, Sheldon Creed, and Harrison Burton secured their berths in the postseason on Saturday night.
Gray finished the best of the three drivers on the night as he came home in the 17th position, while Burton rebounded from a Lap 129 spin after contact with Brennan Poole to finish 22nd, and Creed finished 30th, two laps off the pace after being involved in a Lap 135 multi-car melee in Turn 1.
Creed secured enough points by the end of Stage 2 to secure his berth in the Playoffs, which meant the incident meant very little to his Playoff aspirations, and likewise, Harrison Burton’s spin came after his cousin Jeb Burton, the only driver mathematically able to surpass his points total, crashed out of the race.
From there, Burton just had to hope a new winner, like Sawalich, didn’t find victory lane, and his path to the Playoffs would be set. Turned out, he and the No. 25 AM Racing team made it.
The 12 drivers who will compete for the 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series championship are Connor Zilisch (+59 points), Justin Allgaier (+30), Sam Mayer (+11), Jesse Love (+8), Brandon Jones (+8), Sammy Smith (+4), Nick Sanchez (+1), Taylor Gray (+0), Carson Kvapil (-0), Sheldon Creed (-2), Harrison Burton (-3), Austin Hill (-5).
Next up for the NASCAR Xfinity Series is the Playoff-opening race at Bristol Motor Speedway on Friday, September 12. That race will be televised by The CW with coverage set to kick off at 7:30 PM ET. The Performance Racing Network (PRN) and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will provide the radio broadcast of that race.
