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NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Connor Zilisch celebrates his win at Circuit of the Americas
(Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)

Xfinity Breakdown: Connor Zilisch Continues Road Dominance with COTA Comeback

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Much like Austin Hill last week in Atlanta, Connor Zilisch entered this week’s Focused Health 250 from Circuit of the Americas as the heavy favorite. Following Hill’s lead, Zilisch met the sky-high expectations placed on him with a win in Austin.

While the final results tell the story of another dominant day for Zilisch as he racked up a healthy number of laps led and won by a sound margin over William Byron, the reality of Zilisch’s day is an entirely different story.

Starting from the pole, Zilisch ran away and hid from his competition early in the race. Closing in on the end of stage one, Zilisch appeared to be in cruise control when misfortune totally altered the course of his day. An untimely caution for Baltazar Leguizamon‘s stalled car flew just as Zilisch committed to pit road before the stage end, meaning that Zilisch’s stop on a now closed pit road would result in relegation to the rear of the field.

In a display of tremendous poise from the teenager, Zilisch remained patient in his methodical march back towards the top of the running order and found himself very much back in contention at the start of the race’s third and final stage.

At the start of the final stage, Zilisch appeared to have once again compromised his chances at victory when he made hard contact with Corey Heim, sending Heim spinning and visibly damaging the right front of Zilisch’s WeatherTech machine.

Eventually, though, worries surrounding the damage to the No. 88 machine would vanish as the right front tire rub cleared itself. From there, Zilisch outdueled Hill and JRM teammate Carson Kvapil en route to completing his comeback story with the win.

Byron finished his solid day as the runner-up, with Sam Mayer following behind with a third-place finish. Hill faded late to fourth, with Christian Eckes rounding out the top five finishers.

After starting shotgun on the field, Jesse Love rallied to a sixth-place finish, followed by Taylor Gray in seventh, Ross Chastain in eighth, William Sawalich in ninth, and Blaine Perkins who rounded out to the top 10.

The Winners

Zilisch once again proved to be the gold standard for road course ability, and with a win already under his belt this early in the season, Zilisch can now race more freely for the remainder of the regular season. This is an unsettling development for Zilisch’s competition, especially considering Zilisch will have several more opportunities to rack up playoff points and trophies at more road courses before the playoffs begin.

While greatness is now expected of Zilisch at road courses, his teammate Carson Kvapil impressed in Austin by challenging the proven road course ace in the late stages. Kvapil’s promising run in Austin, in addition to Justin Allgaier‘s track record at road courses, now affirms JRM as a whole (not just Zilisch) as bonafide contenders at each road circuit remaining on the schedule.

In a continuation of their torrid start to the 2025 Xfinity Series season, Richard Childress Racing once again showed up with fast cars with both Hill and Love being in the mix at the front at different times. Solid finishes of fourth for Hill and sixth for Love should put the field on notice that RCR is now equipped to challenge for wins everywhere, including road courses where they were formerly not as strong.

While big teams dominated the day in Austin, Jordan Anderson Racing’s Blaine Perkins deserves a call for his tenth-place run. Perhaps this nice run at COTA can help this small operation build some positive momentum early in the season.

The Losers

While extensive and deeply competitive entry lists are generally positive, they unfortunately dictate that some teams that show up will not earn the right to race. For Alpha Prime Racing, this weekend in COTA proved dreadful from the get-go as they only managed to qualify one of their three entries into the Xfinity Series field. On a positive note for Alpha Prime, their single entry in the race scored a top 20 finish with driver Brennan Poole, but this small victory cannot overshadow their shortcomings as a team in qualifying.

After qualifying sixth and running up front nearly all day, Heim’s day in the Sam Hunt Racing No. 24 unfortunately came undone towards the start of the final stage after contact with Zilisch sent him spinning into a sand trap. After losing track position, Heim found it tough to make up ground, and a once promising day resulted in a terribly disappointing finish of 31st.

Carson Hocevar, after continuing to impress in the Cup Series with an impressive qualifying effort for Sunday’s race, saw his Xfinity race come to an early end before it really even began after he was eliminated in a lap 4 incident. Subbing in to try to earn a solid finish for SS Greenlight Racing, Hocevar certainly expected more out of an Xfinity outing that seemed to hold so much potential.

Fuel for Thought

With Zilisch securing the win in spite of several setbacks, his performance begs the question: can he run the table on Xfinity road course races this year? The feat seems improbable, but the odds of it happening are definitely nonzero given Zilisch’s incredible road racing acumen.

While the Xfinity Series still touts a solid lineup of road racers, Zilisch proved today to be in a class all his own. Expect Zilisch to inherit the role Shane van Gisbergen occupied in the series last year before graduating to Cup this year as the favorite for each and every Xfinity road course event.

Paint Scheme of the Week

Xfinity Series veteran Jeremy Clements reached the remarkable milestone of 500 starts in the series this weekend in Austin. It is only fitting that his car featured an eye-catching scheme for this momentous occasion, as Clements’ No. 51 Henderson Jet Services Chevrolet stuck out from the field with its vibrant yellow complemented by black with a silver foil number.

While Clements ran across some hard luck and only managed a 28th-place finish, he and his team can certainly be proud of their amazing milestone and this impressive scheme.

Where to Next?

Next Saturday, March 8, the NASCAR Xfinity Series returns to action from the Phoenix Raceway. The series’ last event at this venue saw Riley Herbst score the win as Allgaier secured the championship.

Coverage begins at 5:00 p.m. ET on the CW and over radio via the Motor Racing Network.

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