Connor Zilisch didn’t have the easiest path to victory in Saturday’s Focused Health 250 at Circuit of the Americas, but his beaten and battered No. 88 got the job done in crunch time.
After starting from the pole, Zilisch was penalized at the end of Stage 1 for pitting when pit road was closed. After charging through the field, contact with a plethora of drivers in Stage 3 damaged Zilisch’s Chevrolet. In the closing laps, he was being hounded by fellow rookie and JR Motorsports teammate Carson Kvapil.
However, Zilisch remained poised. As he and Kvapil traded blows, Kvapil’s right-front tire took too much abuse, and eventually went flat with five laps to go.
From there, it was smooth sailing for Zilisch, who earned his second Xfinity Series win in his seventh Xfinity Series start. The 18-year-old phenom from Mooresville, North Carolina, will make his Cup Series debut at COTA on Sunday.
“That was way harder than I wanted it to be,” Zilisch told CW Sports. “I did not drive a clean race at all. I’m sorry to everyone I hit, I was kind of mentally fogged halfway through that race. I’m glad we were able to fight back, so proud of everyone. It’s been a fun weekend, (and) we have a big race tomorrow.”
William Byron, Sam Mayer, Austin Hill and Christian Eckes rounded out the top-five, with Jesse Love, Taylor Gray, Ross Chastain, William Sawalich and Blaine Perkins completing the top-10.
Other notable finishers include Sheldon Creed in 12th, Riley Herbst in 13th, Kvapil in 23rd, Justin Allgaier in 29th and Carson Hocevar in 38th.
The fourth race of the 2025 Xfinity Series season will take place on March 8 at Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Arizona.
