Xfinity Breakdown: Another Week, Another Win On The Impressive Resume of Connor Zilisch

What a summer it’s been for Connor Zilisch.

Since returning from a back injury sustained at Talladega Superspeedway (April 26), the JR Motorsports rookie held an average finish of 2.4. To say that Zilisch rode a hot streak heading into Saturday’s (July 19) NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Dover Motor Speedway would be a substantial understatement.

Saturday afternoon at Dover, we saw more of the same. The 18-year-old phenom took the lead at the start of Stage 2 in the BetRivers 200 and never looked back, leading all but three laps before Mother Nature forced a premature conclusion on lap 134 of 200.

Connor conquered the concrete. pic.twitter.com/hgGurl1rC3

— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) July 19, 2025

Zilisch now has three wins in the past five races and has finished no worse than fifth in the past eight. He continues to eat into teammate Justin Allgaier‘s point lead and shows no sign of slowing down anytime soon.

Behind Zilisch, a pair of Joe Gibbs Racing teammates made up the top three, with Aric Almirola and Brandon Jones second and third, respectively. Allgaier finished fourth with Jesse Love rounding out the top five.

A strong run for Ryan Sieg slotted the No. 39 sixth when the rain began to fall, with polesitter Taylor Gray and Sheldon Creed seventh and eighth. William Sawalich and Christian Eckes made up the rest of the top 10.

The Winners

The obvious winner is Zilisch. The young driver has been on an unbelievable tear since coming back. When Zilisch returned at Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 24, he was 170 points behind Allgaier in the regular season standings. Leaving Dover, he has cut the gap to 55.

Aside from your race winner, it was a fantastic day for Jones and the No. 20 team. It’s been a bit of a struggle for Jones as of late, without a top-10 in the past seven races, and he has only recorded two such finishes since his win at Darlington Raceway back in April.

A third-place finish and the Xfinity fastest lap point put the No. 20 team back on track after what’s been an abysmal 10-race stretch for the team.

As mentioned before, how about Sieg and the No. 39 team? After three straight weeks finishing 30th or worse, a finish one spot outside the top five with solid stage points boosts Sieg back into the playoff bubble fight in the dog days of summer. Sieg now has seven top-10s on the year, just two shy of his total from a year ago.

Last but not least, let’s give a shoutout to Sawalich in the No. 18. The rookie season for Sawalich has certainly left plenty to be desired as he sits 23rd in the series standings, but maybe this is a sign he’s starting to turn the corner. Back-to-back top 10s for the first time this season is a start; now he has to build on this recent stretch of success.

The Losers

While Almirola and Jones finished the day second and third, Taylor Gray seemed to be the best JGR car early in the day. Unfortunately, Gray’s day fell apart after winning stage one. A mishap with the right rear tire led to an extremely slow stop, knocking the No. 54 from the lead to well outside the top 10.

After that, the car was never the same, and Gray never fully recovered to where he once was, only managing a climb to seventh at the end of the day.

Another driver who had a disappointing day was Carson Kvapil. A year ago, Kvapil was the driver in Zilisch’s shoes, making his second career start in the JRM No. 88, and ended the day just one stop short of a win.

This time around, Kvapil and the No. 1 team were in large part a non-factor, as Kvapil never once cracked the top-10 in a race he was expected to contend for a win.

Last but not least, it was not the day two-time and defending Dover winner Ryan Truex was hoping for. It wasn’t necessarily a bad day for Truex, who started way down in 32nd in the Sam Hunt Racing No. 24. But, compared to winning back to back in a JGR car, it’s a dip for sure. Who knows, had the rains not come, Truex could have worked his way to the front, but Mother Nature never allowed that to play out.

Fuel For Thought

Can Zilisch do what Kyle Larson couldn’t do a year ago?

Yes, we’re comparing apples to oranges here, but they’re both still fruit if you know what we’re trying to say.

Larson missed last year’s NASCAR Cup Series Coke 600 by choice, to stay in Indianapolis and run the Indianapolis 500. Zilisch missed this year’s Xfinity race at Texas Motor Speedway due to injury, no choice of his own.

Still, Zilisch has a chance to win the regular season championship despite spotting the entire field a race, just like Larson attempted to do in 2024. It didn’t seem all that likely back in May, but the narrative has changed, as documented. A 55-point gap over the next six races is doable, albeit a steep mountain to climb.

Larson ultimately came up one point short to Tyler Reddick last year, so Zilisch will try to better that in a similar scenario this year. The best part of this is that Larson filled in for Zilisch at Texas, and funny enough, he put the No. 88 in victory lane.

Paint Scheme of the Week

Harrison Burton‘s Morton Buildings No. 25 takes the honors this week, as the sponsor and AM Racing debuted a beautiful new black and red design at Dover on Saturday. Burton finished 11th, one spot outside the top-10.

Built a fresh new scheme for @MonsterMile to tame the beast! The @MortonBuildings machine goes to battle against Miles this Saturday!@HBurtonRacing | @TheCW_Sports | @XfinityRacing | @FordPerformance | @roushyates | @KHIManagement pic.twitter.com/zRifb9ZqES

— AM Racing (@AMRacingNASCAR) July 17, 2025

Where to Next?

The Xfinity Series now heads to the Hoosier state for a visit to the historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday, July 26. Riley Herbst picked up the win a year ago, making a move on Almirola on the final lap to win.

Coverage begins at 4:30 p.m. ET with live television coverage on The CW. Live radio broadcast can be found on both SiriusXM NASCAR Radio and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network.