Connor Zilisch Survives a Penalty, Fuel Save, and Multiple Restarts to Capture Win in Xfinity Debut

Connor Zilisch survived everything that his Debut Xfinity Series Race threw at him to win in his Xfinity Series debut. Zilisch who will drive for JR Motorsports in the 2025 season, started his Xfinity series race from the pole and led the first stage.

Friday night, Zilisch beat the ARCA field by 12 seconds in preparation for his Xfinity Series debut.

His first win wouldn't be as easy as Friday's victory. He collected a hefty penalty when he followed Ty Gibbs and Sam Mayer through the Bus Stop under yellow, a mistake that made sense more for the rookie than the other two drivers.

Mayer said over the radio that he thought they were aloud to cut that portion of the track during yellow.

Zilisch cycled back from the back of the pack to challenge for the lead, with 22 laps to go Zilisch was told that he was two laps short on fuel and to start saving now, he coasted through corners whenever possible after pitting for gas last on lap 48.

The 18-year-old took the lead in the final 15 laps and was pulling away before the cautions starting piling in.

With six laps to go, Connor Zilisch led over Sheldon Creed and Ty Gibbs when Matt Dibenedetto stalled, bringing out the race's fourth caution. Zilisch and Gibbs were in fuel-saving mode, trying to make it the additional two laps needed to finish after filling up with 48 laps remaining.

On the restart, AJ Allmendinger fought for the lead three wide from the third position. Zilisch came out the winner of the battle and pulled out to a lead as back mid-pack, a carnage-filled crash brought out a caution, forcing an overtime finish and a red flag for extensive cleanup.

Once restarted from the red flag, Zilisch was lined up next to Mayer with Allmendinger behind. He survived a second attack by the veteran road racer to pull to the lead again before another yellow was thrown. Gibbs ran out of gas right before the Bus Stop crash that brought out the caution and the two leaders of Mayer and Zilisch remained close on fuel.

The final restart saw Zilisch pull out to the lead again, while he was able to hold off Mayer he was sputtering going up the hill. After the white flag was thrown a yellow followed for another crash back in the pack. Zilisch was running on fumes and slowed to the slowest reasonable pace to defend his lead and take the checkered flag.

"I worked so hard for this one," Zilisch said. "I’ve been working for this one for months. It’s so special to me man, I don’t have words right now. I don’t know how I saved enough. I sputtered up the hill with two to go, I didn’t think I was going to make it back to the line. I was saving the last two laps, I’m going to enjoy this one for a while."

Zilisch shared through a Spire Motorsports video after his NASCAR Truck debut this Spring that his current goal is to be the youngest NASCAR Cup Champion. With this win, he moves one step closer to pulling it off. Before his early stock car racing success his eyes were on the 24 Hours of Le Mans to follow his wins this year in the 24 Hours of Daytona and Sebring 12 Hour.

"Growing up a road racer that leads me to want to win the Le Mans 24 Hour but recently, my number one goal has been to become the youngest Cup Series Champion, honestly I feel that is a possible goal, it’s definitely not going to be easy, The Cup Series is far from easy."

With his ability to adapt and be widely successful with little experience, Zilisch continues to be a story to watch.

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