CONNOR ZILISCH – MOTORSPORT AMERICA PHOTO
JR Motorsports rookie Connor Zilisch celebrates his ninth win in
Victory Lane after taking Saturday’s Nu Way 200 Sauced by Blues Hog
NASCAR Xfinity Series race at World Wide Technology Raceway. Photo
credit: World Wide Technology Raceway._
* JR Motorsports rookie Connor Zilisch captures his ninth win of the
season to secure the NASCAR Xfinity Series regular-season crown._
* Regular-season finale sets the 12-driver field for the upcoming
Xfinity Series Playoffs._
MADISON, Ill. (Sept. 6, 2025) – The Zilisch Express made yet another
stop at Victory Lane station.
Rookie phenom Connor Zilisch of JR Motorsports earned his fourth
consecutive victory from the pole en route to clinching the NASCAR
Xfinity Series regular-season title in Saturday night’s Nu Way 200
Sauced by Blues Hog at World Wide Technology Raceway [1].
Zilisch led four times for a race-high 121 laps to win by 1.506 seconds
over runner-up William Sawalich of Joe Gibbs Racing, who needed the
victory to make the playoffs. The win was a series rookie record ninth
for Zilisch, who claimed the regular-season title by 53 points over
teammate Justin Allgaier and gained 15 valuable bonus playoff points as
a result.
“That one was stressful. Man, that’s awesome! Four in a row,”
Zilisch said. “This is going to be tough to keep up, honestly. It’s
rare that you can go on a run like this.
“Every week I show up thinking, man, this is going to be the weekend
that we just go run eighth and 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.”
The 160-lap, 200-mile regular-season finale determined the final three
berths for the 12-driver Xfinity Series Playoffs field. Sheldon Creed of
the Haas Factory Team, Taylor Gray of Joe Gibbs Racing and Harrison
Burton of AM Racing earn the spots based off their points standings.
They join race winners Zilisch, Allgaier, Sam Mayer of the Haas Factory
Team, Jesse Love of Richard Childress Racing, Austin Hill of RCR,
Brandon Jones of Joe Gibbs Racing, Sammy Smith of JR Motorsports and
Nick Sanchez of Big Machine Racing along with JR Motorsports’ Carson
Kvapil, who clinched a spot last week on points.
JR Motorsports took the opening two stages with Zilisch winning the
first and Allgaier the second. Zilisch grabbed control in the final
stage, but had to fend off late challenges on restarts as a result of
three caution flags coming in the final 31 laps. The big one came on Lap
136 when 10 cars were involved in a Turn 1 incident and the last from
Laps 144-148 for debris on the frontstretch.
Joe Gibbs Racing driver Aric Almirola, who finished sixth, put up a
brief challenge by taking the lead on the opening lap after the restart.
Zilisch, however, regained the lead on the ensuing lap and led the final
12 to victory.
The opening Xfinity Series Playoffs Round of 12 opens Friday at Bristol
Motor Speedway with Zilisch as the top seed.