Zilisch Ends Regular Season Title Run With Gateway Score

Connor Zilisch celebrates in victory lane Saturday at World Wide Technology Raceway. (David Rosenblum/Nigel Kinrade Photography)

MADISON, Ill. – There has been no stopping Connor Zilisch in the NASCAR Xfinity Series this year.

Through two separate injuries, a missed race in early May, and every challenge the field could throw at him, the 19-year-old rookie sensation has yet to blink when the lights have been brightest.

And after being seemingly out of the hunt two months ago, Zilisch capped an improbable regular-season championship surge with his ninth victory of the season Saturday night at World Wide Technology Raceway.

Zilisch led 121 of 160 laps in the Nu Way 200 Sauced by Blues Hog and looked almost untouchable throughout the night at the 1.25-mile paved oval just outside of St. Louis.

His only blemish was the second 35-lap stage, when he lost track position on the first set of pit stops and had to work to get it back prior to the stretch run of the regular season finale.

A stellar pit stop by his JR Motorsports crew took care of that deficit, however, and once Zilisch regained the lead on lap 76 he never gave it up again under green flag conditions.

Through four restarts in the final 41 laps, Zilisch stood firm each time to score his 10th career Xfinity Series victory in just 29 starts, as well as his fourth in a row and seventh in his last eight races.

With his Gateway trophy, Zilisch joined Sam Ard and Noah Gragson as just the third driver in Xfinity Series history to achieve four consecutive race victories.

He also earned the regular season title in his first – and likely only – full-time campaign, with advancement to the premier NASCAR Cup Series on tap for 2026.

The teenage savant, who was 157 points out of the lead with 11 races to go in the regular season, roared to a 53-point edge over teammate and defending series titlist Justin Allgaier by the time the checkered flag waved just northeast of the famed Gateway Arch.

Connor Zilisch celebrates with a burnout Saturday night at World Wide Technology Raceway. (Nigel Kinrade/NKP photo)

“That one was stressful, [but] four in a row … that’s awesome,” said Zilisch after his burnout and frontstretch celebration. “This is going to be tough to keep up; it’s so rare that you can go on a run like this, but it’s just such a testament to all the men and women at JR Motorsports that we’re doing what we’ve done this summer.

“To be part of the most wins [16] in a season ever for JRM … it’s already a dream year, but now we have to keep it going.”

Zilisch was easily the dominant force, also collecting the win in stage one prior to his overall victory, but a cut tire for Jeb Burton on lap 110 sent the playoff hopeful hard into the turn-two wall and set the stage for a chaotic slog to the finish.

That crash finalized the 12 playoff drivers, save for a potential new winner, but the carnage and stress was far from over.

Harrison Burton was sent spinning by Brennan Poole in nearly the same spot as his cousin’s earlier crash, bringing out the night’s fourth yellow flag with 32 to go, and then a gear issue for Sheldon Creed on the ensuing restart left carnage from the start-finish line through turn one as an 11-car crash broke out.

Creed’s car bogged down as he tried to get going in the outside lane, sending cars scattering before he inadvertently tagged his Haas Factory Team teammate Sam Mayer around into traffic.

That sent Mayer careening into Allgaier, Taylor Gray, and others, who pummeled into the accident scene with nowhere to go.

Zilisch escaped well clear of the wreck, however, and controlled the field through both the next restart with 18 to go and a final restart with 12 laps left that came after debris on the frontstretch forced one more caution.

Two fellow rookies in William Sawalich and Christian Eckes, both in must-win situations to make the playoffs, got to second and third place behind Zilisch as the laps wound down to conclusion.

But neither young gun could make a stand down the stretch, as Zilisch drove away to a 1.506-second margin at the checkered flag.

Brandon Jones and Jesse Love filled out the top five, with Aric Almirola, Daniel Hemric, Parker Retzlaff, Corey Day, and Daniel Dye crossing sixth through 10th, respectively.

Retzlaff’s strong finish came in his milestone 100th Xfinity Series start.

With no new winner in the regular season finale, Gray, Creed, and Harrison Burton secured the final three berths into the Xfinity Series playoff field on points.

That trio, plus Zilisch, Allgaier, Mayer, Love, Austin Hill, Jones, Carson Kvapil, Sammy Smith, and Nick Sanchez, will vie for the Xfinity Series championship starting next weekend at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway.

Broadcast coverage of the playoff-opening Food City 300 is slated for Friday night, Sept. 12 at 7:30 p.m. ET, live on The CW, the Performance Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.