Connor Zilisch Turns Rookie Year into a Championship Crusade
The 12 drivers who have qualified for the 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs met with the national media Tuesday and there was a common and clear storyline in their plans to hoist the championship trophy as they kick off the seven-race Playoff run.
They need to beat JR Motorsports driver Connor Zilisch.
Zilisch, the 19-year-old rookie driver of the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet conceded his own path toward to a title in his first full season in the sport, really only seemed plausible mid-season but he heads into the Friday night’s Playoff opener – the Food City 300 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET on CW, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) – a strong championship favorite.
A road course ace with a background in formula cars and the Trans Am Series, it was of no surprise that Zilisch would immediately fare well on the series’ road courses, but the talented young driver quickly proved he was good on a wide assortment of venues. And the 2025 championship soon became a realistic goal.
“I feel like it was a pretty obvious turn after Talladega, getting hurt and having to sit out for a week and then I came back from that with a fresh mindset and just wanted to turn my season around,” said Zilisch, who has a rookie record nine wins this season.
“It was a rough first 10, 11 races and I knew we had the speed to contend and we were always fast enough to win. But one mistake, whether me or the pit crew – whatever that was – would take us out of contention for wins. I knew if we just cleaned up what we were doing and executed at 90 percent I knew we could go out and win a lot of races.
“I think that three-week break to just kind of think about things and re-set, really helped me and changed my mindset. Then when we started winning races the confidence and momentum of the team really started to pick up and that’s when it started to snowball.”
Zilisch’s victories have come not only on the road courses where he is most comfortable but also at traditionally tough venues from the 2.5-mile Pocono (Ra.) Raceway to places such as the Dover (Del) one-miler and even first-time visits at tracks such as World Wide Technology Raceway just last week. Zilisch goes into the Playoffs with a string of four consecutive victories and wins in seven of the last eight races. He earned 64 Playoff points – twice that of any other driver in the series.
“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t surprised,” Zilisch said of the unprecedented success this year. “I came into this year and was hoping to win three or four races and make the Playoffs and start to contend for more wins as the Playoffs started. But I’ve picked up on things a lot quicker than I expected. My team has gotten a better understanding of what they need out of me and what I need out of them to go win races and things have just clicked a little bit quicker than I expected.
“It’s definitely caught me by surprise and I take every week in and I celebrate and I enjoy these wins but it’s really all leading up to [championship finale] Phoenix and trying to go out and win a championship.”
Reigning Champ Justin Allgaier Remains Confident
Reigning NASCAR Xfinity Series champion JR Motorsports veteran Justin Allgaier finished second to his teammate Zilisch in the Regular Season Championship. And he joins Zilisch and Austin Hill as the series’ only other multi-race winners.
Allgaier has hoisted three trophies – the last at Nashville in June. And he heads into the Playoffs feeling confident about becoming the first repeat champ since Tyler Reddick in 2018-19. Even with so much on the line, Allgaier said the “pressure” is off his No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet team to win a title because they have done that. And, he says that even coming into the year as the reigning champ the only significant boost is the experience of successfully going through a title run.
“I think for us it’s just a matter of executing, we’ve had the speed,” said Allgaier, adding, “I could look back at the last couple of months and say, “coulda woulda shoulda,” but we had the car to beat, we just got caught up in someone else’s mess or made mistakes on our own.
“One thing I love is that they’ve had success,” Allgaier acknowledged of the Zilisch nine-win run. “As a company we’re still winning and we’re still doing all the right things. … it doesn’t matter what race team you work at, when at least one of your cars is having success everybody’s elevated, everybody is ready to keep pushing and keep going.
“We’ve got four fast race cars every week, we just haven’t been able to show what we’re capable of and I’m hoping once these Playoffs start we can do a better job of executing. I know I have the team behind me.”
Sam Mayer Not To Be Overlooked
Haas Factory Team driver Sam Mayer may not have turned in the flash and multi-victory pizzazz this year that Zilisch has demonstrated, but the 22-year-old Wisconsin native won at Iowa Speedway in August and his 15 top-10s through the opening 26-races points to the consistent success he’s shown all year.
The driver of the No. 41 HFT Ford concedes Zilisch has proven himself the driver to beat, but Mayer said he’s up for the challenge.
“I’m really proud of everyone at the Haas Factory Team right now, for sure, I feel like we’ve definitely had a lot of adversity the last couple weeks to fight through and we never gave up on each other,” said Mayer, whose best championship finish was third in 2023.
“I guess it’s the 88 (Zilisch) and everyone else. … but I feel like we’re making steps in the right direction with the Playoff (points) reset and the way these Playoffs are, all the stuff you do [in the regular season], can also not matter in an instant. You just want to peak at the right time. You want to be able to do what you can in these next three races to make it to the next round.
“I feel pretty good with what we have,” he added, “We’re not good enough to be dominant like that [Zilisch] but I don’t feel like we’re too far off from that point either.”
Austin Hill Expects To Be A Contender
A three-race winner this year in the No 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, driver Austin Hill heads into the 2025 Playoffs with reason to be optimistic but also cognizant of the challenge ahead. A big penalty for rough driving at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in July cost Hill all his accumulated Playoff points and puts him in an immediate position to play catch-up.
He begins the seven-race Playoff stretch ranked last among the 12 competitors, minus-five points to eighth-place Taylor Gray with only eight drivers advancing after the opening round of races – Friday at Bristol, Sept. 27 at Kansas Speedway and Oct. 4 at the Charlotte ROVAL.
“I’m just going to do the same thing I’ve done each and every year,” said Hill, who has maintained he is not a rough driver despite the one-race suspension and points-penalty he received for crashing into Aric Almirola at Indy.
“As far as I know I don’t have a lot of enemies on the race track,” he continued. “I probably have a few, but I think once the Playoffs start, I think it’ll be just like everyone else. Everybody’s going to be going for it and you only worry about your race team and your organization and go out and get the job done and try to get to the Championship Four.”
Hill acknowledged the penalty has made his path to a title harder. But he’s turned the challenge into motivation.
“For me, I think going into the Playoffs and not having the Playoff points and all that just kind of gave me a little bit more determination in these last few races before the Playoffs started, kind of fired me up a little bit more,” Hill said. “Almost made me angry in a sense. … just that I want to show the world and all the outside noise what this 21-team is capable of and what I’m capable of doing and that’s to try and win a championship and I think we can do that no matter if our backs are to the walls or not.”
— NASCAR Wire Service —