Connor Zilisch took home his 10th win of the NASCAR Xfinity Series season, holding the win in overtime over Austin Green at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL.
The caution came out after the white flag flew, with Zilisch in the lead.
Green, Sammy Smith, Kaz Grala and Connor Mosack rounded out the top five.
Jeb Burton finished sixth, followed by William Sawalich and Justin Allgaier. Nick Sanchez and Christian Eckes rounded out the top 10.
“Enough people stayed out with me to give me a gap,” Zilisch told the CW after the race. “So much fun getting to race in my hometown. JR Motorsports cars were so fast this weekend, my WeatherTech Chevrolet was as fast as Xfinity Mobile all day long. First in practice, qualified on the pole, led a lot of laps and came home with the win. Feels really good to get 10 (wins), double digits is pretty awesome for my first year in this series. Now we just gotta go win the championship.”
Zilisch started on the pole and led a race-high 61 of 68 laps en route to the victory.
Because the race ended under yellow, there was question about the finishing order and who would move forward into the Round of 8. Though the initial leaderboard showed Smith and Taylor Gray tied, NASCAR dropped Gray to a 13th-place finish, giving Smith a single-point edge.
Zilisch, Brandon Jones and Allgaier were locked in already, and Sam Mayer, Jesse Love, Sheldon Creed and Carson Kvapil were all at least two points to the good.
The ROVAL definitely wasn’t kind to playoff drivers either.
The first playoff driver who had major mechanical issues was Harrison Burton. He stopped at an opening trying to get off the course, bringing out the first caution with about five laps left in stage one. He returned to the track after the end of the stage, about five laps down.
Mayer had some frustrations with other drivers early on in the race and had to serve a stop-and-go penalty for missing a chicane. Then, under the caution break for the end of stage two, the No. 41 had a pit road penalty for a crew member over the wall too soon. The cushion he built during the first two races in the Round of 12 helped protect his spot above the playoff cut line.
Meanwhile, Austin Hill was running in the top 10 when his worst nightmare occurred. He felt like his No. 21 might’ve gone down a cylinder, and it was apparent, especially on the oval portion of Charlotte. He ended up finishing 28th and missed the playoff cut line by 21 points.
Joining Hill in being eliminated from championship contention are Gray, Sanchez and Harrison Burton.
NASCAR Xfinity Results at Charlotte ROVAL
The Round of 8 begins next week at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The Focused Health 302 airs Saturday, Oct. 11 at 7:30 p.m. ET on the CW.
Joy joined Frontstretch in 2019 as a NASCAR DraftKings writer, expanding to news and iRacing coverage in 2020. She's currently an assistant editor and involved with photos, social media and news editing. A California native, Joy was raised watching motorsports and started watching NASCAR extensively in 2001. She earned her B.A. degree in Liberal Studies at California State University Bakersfield in 2010.