Connor Zilisch’s historic campaign as a full-time NASCAR Xfinity Series competitor continued under the lights in front of his home crowd after he scored a dominant victory in the eighth annual running of the Blue Cross NC 250 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course on Saturday, October 4.
The 19-year-old Zilisch from Charlotte, North Carolina, led all but seven of 68 overscheduled laps in an event where he was the fastest competitor both in practice and qualifying. Leading the field to the event’s start from pole position, he executed his strategic plan by pitting prior to the conclusion of the event’s first two stage periods, though he still claimed the first stage victory. Amid his plan, he dominated on the track.
Then, after having a 10-second advantage evaporate with four laps remaining due to a late-race incident involving Sage Karam, Zilisch was among a handful of competitors who elected to remain on the track while a majority of the field, including Zilisch’s JR Motorsports teammates and Playoff contenders, pitted for fresh tires. During an overtime shootout, Zilisch muscled away from the field and built a reasonable gap just prior to a fluid caution that flew on the final lap and concluded the event. With the lead in his possession, Zilisch was able to cruise to his unprecedented 10th Xfinity victory of the 2025 season and earn additional momentum heading into next weekend’s Round of 8 towards the Playoffs.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, Playoff contender Connor Zilisch notched his eighth Xfinity career pole position with a pole-winning lap at 96.503 mph in 85.054 seconds. Zilisch shared the front row with teammate and Playoff contender Justin Allgaier, the latter of whom posted his fastest qualifying lap at 95.984 mph in 85.514 seconds.
Before the event, the following names, which included Parker Retzlaff, Daniel Dye, Anthony Alfredo, Josh Williams and Jeremy Clements, started at the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments that were made to their respective entries. Jeb Burton also dropped to the rear of the field due to missing driver introductions.
When the green flag waved and the event commenced, Connor Zilisch, who opted to start on the outside lane, engaged in an early duel with teammate Justin Allgaier through the first turn and a majority of the infield turns before the former managed to muscle ahead just past Turn 5. With Zilisch ahead of the field, he proceeded to lead through the remaining infield turns and a sharp left-hand turn of Turn 7 before the field navigated through Charlotte’s oval turns. Once Zilisch smoothly navigated his way through the backstretch chicane, the remaining oval turns and the frontstretch chicane, he led the first lap.
During the second lap, Corey Day, who was racing in fifth place, started to have smoke coming out of his No. 17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro entry and he also had right-rear quarter panel damage due to hitting the wall exiting Turn 2. In addition, Daniel Dye sent Anthony Alfredo for a spin in Turn 7. Amid both incidents, the race remained under green flag conditions, though Day continued to lose positions and generate heavy smoke from his entry through every turn and straightaway. Meanwhile, Zilisch retained his early lead over teammates Allgaier, Playoff contender Sammy Smith and Connor Mosack.
Just past the first five scheduled laps, Zilisch was leading by more than two seconds over teammate Allgier while teammates Sammy Smith and Mosack continued to trail in third and fourth, respectively, by four seconds. As Playoff contender Jesse Love occupied fifth place, Playoff contenders Sam Mayer and Carson Kvapil along with Kaz Grala, Austin Green and Aric Almirola pursued in the top 10 while Playoff contenders Austin Hill, Nick Sanchez and Sheldon Creed along with Christian Eckes, Day, William Sawalich, Matt DiBenedetto, Alex Labbe, Playoff contender Taylor Gray and Brennan Poole trailed in the top 20, respectively. Meanwhile, Playoff contenders Harrison Burton and Brandon Jones were mired in 26th and 27th, respectively, behind Jeb Burton and Daniel Hemric.
Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Zilisch extended his lead to more than four seconds over teammate Allgaier while teammates Mosack and Smith, along with Mayer, trailed by as far back as 10 seconds. Zilisch proceeded to add another five seconds to his advantage as he led by nine seconds at the Lap 14 mark.
Amid Zilisch’s dominant run, the event’s first caution flew on Lap 14 when Harrison Burton, who radioed fuel pressure issues and was plummeting below the leaderboard, stalled his No. 25 DEX Imaging Ford Mustang entry in Turn 4 as the driver was attempting to steer his entry off of the racing groove.
During the event’s first caution, nearly the entire field led by Zilisch opted to pit early for tires, fuel and adjustments while a handful led by Nick Sanchez and including Matt DiBenedetto, Jeb Burton and Parker Retzlaff remained on the track.
When the race restarted with three laps remaining in the first stage period, Sanchez muscled away from the field as the field fanned out and jostled for spots entering the first turn. Through the infield turns, Zilisch, who reported concerns of having a loose wheel but opted to remain on the track, rocketed his way into the runner-up spot as the field continued to bump and jostle for spots through the remaining infield turns, Turn 7 and the oval turns. Zilisch would then overtake Sanchez through the backstretch chicane and muscle away with the lead. As Zilisch led, Mayer was bumped off the track in the backstretch chicane and he served a “stop-and-go” penalty at the chicane during the following lap.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 20, Zilisch cruised to his 11th Xfinity stage victory of the 2025 season. Love, Allgaier, Sammy Smith, Kvapil, Austin Hill, Sanchez, Aric Almirola, Sheldon Creed and Mosack settled in the top 10, respectively, while Taylor Gray and Brandon Jones were mired in 17th and 19th, respectively. In addition, Mayer was mired in 12th place.
Under the first stage break period, select names led by Sanchez and including DiBenedetto, Jeb Burton and Ryan Sieg pitted their respective entries while the rest led by Zilisch remained on the track.
The second stage period started on Lap 24 as Zilisch and Jesse Love occupied the front row. At the start, Zilisch muscled ahead of Love and the field through the first turn. Zilisch proceeded to lead through the infield turns and Turn 7 before he navigated his way through the oval turns and the backstretch chicane. As Zilisch’s lead grew to more than a second, he then led through the frontstretch chicane before he cycled back to the start/finish line and led the next lap.
Following a third caution period that occurred on Lap 26 due to Josh Williams stalling on the course, the event restarted under green on Lap 29. At the start, Zilisch muscled away from Love, Sammy Smith and Allgaier through the first turn and an early set of infield turns. As Zilisch proceeded to lead the next lap over Love and Sammy Smith, Austin Hill muscled his way up to fourth place while Allgaier, who got hit by Creed as the latter got hit by Kvapil, dropped to fifth place.
At the event’s halfway mark between Laps 33 and 34, Zilisch stretched his lead to more than four seconds over runner-up Love and by nearly six seconds over third-place Sammy Smith while Allgaier, His, Creed, Mayer and Kvapil, all of whom are racing in the Playoffs, trailed in the top eight, respectively. Meanwhile, Sanchez, Gray and Jones were mired in 20th, 21st and 23rd, respectively, while Harrison Burton was strapped four laps down in 36th place following his early mechanical issues.
Then with three laps remaining in the second stage period, a bevy of competitors, including Allgaier, Gray, Hemric, Mosack, Austin Green, Almirola, Eckes, Sawalich, Jeb Burton, Dean Thompson, Sanchez, Kaz Grala, Corey Day and Anthony Alfredo pitted their respective entries. During the pit stops, Sanchez dragged his jack out of his pit box. Soon after, Zilisch surrendered the lead to pit during the next lap, which allowed Love to cycle to the lead just as pit road became inaccessible to the field due to the upcoming conclusion of a stage period.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 40, Love captured his second Xfinity stage victory of the 2025 season. Playoff contenders Sammy Smith, Austin Hill, Creed, Kvapil and Mayer followed suit in the top six, respectively, while Alex Labbe, Josh Bilicki, Sage Karam and Zilisch were scored in the top 10. Meanwhile, Allgaier, Gray, Jones and Sanchez were racing in 15th, 24th, 25th and 28th, respectively, while Harrison Burton was still strapped in 36th place and racing three laps down.
During the second stage break period, some led by Love and including Sammy Smith, Hill, Creed, Kvapil and Mayer pitted their respective entries while the rest led by Zilisch remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, Mayer was penalized due to his crew members jumping over the pit wall too soon prior to a pit stop.
With 23 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as teammates Zilisch and Allgaier occupied the front row. At the start, Zilisch fended off Allgaier to retain the lead through the first turn and the infield turns before he navigated his way through the oval turns and the backstretch chicane. Zilisch proceeded to lead the next lap over Allgaier, Mosack, Eckes and Austin Green while Jeb Burton, Almirola, Grala, Gray and Hill pursued in the top 10, respectively. By then, Sammy Smith was mired in 13th ahead of DiBenedetto, Creed, Kvapil, Love and Jones while Mayer was down in 25th behind Sanchez.
Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Zilisch stretched his late lead to more than two seconds over teammate Allgaier while third-place teammate Mosack trailed by four seconds. By then, Kvapil, who was racing in 15th place, occupied the eighth and final transfer berth to the Playoff’s Round of 8 by five points over Hill while Sammy Smith, who was racing in 13th place on the track, was scored 11 points below the cutline.
Five laps later, Taylor Gray, who was racing in 11th place on the track, found himself on the cutline as he was only three points ahead of Hill, who was racing in ninth place, while Sammy Smith, who bumped and sent Corey Day for a spin in Turn 7 four laps earlier, trailed the cutline by 10 points as he was racing in 12th place in front of teammate Kvapil and Love. Meanwhile, Zilisch stabilized his lead to four seconds over teammate Allgaier while Mosack, Eckes and Austin Green followed suit in the top five, respectively.
With 10 laps remaining, Hill, who reported a lost cylinder to his No. 21 Bennett Chevrolet Camaro entry, dropped to 18th place in the leaderboard. As a result, his points deficit grew from three to 12. In the process, Gray, who was racing in 11th place, retained the final transfer berth by eight points over Sammy Smith, who was racing just ahead of Gray in 10th place while Sanchez, who pitted under green to address a flat right-front tire to his No. 48 Gainbridge Chevrolet Camaro entry, was mired in 31st place on the track and trailing the cutline by 31 points. Amid the on-track battles within the field, Zilisch continued to lead by more than five seconds over teammate Allgaier, with Mosack, Eckes and Green retaining their respective spots in the top five.
As the final five laps of the event struck, Gray’s points cushion for the final transfer spot stabilized as he was six points ahead of Sammy Smith while Hill and Sanchez trailed by 11 and 29 points, respectively. At the front of the field, Zilisch added another four seconds to his lead as he led by nine seconds over teammate Allgaier. Amid the battles amongst the Playoff contenders, Mosack pitted under green flag from third place to have a fuel pressure issue addressed. Mosack’s move allowed Austin Green to move into third place while Eckes and Almirola followed suit in the top five.
Then with four laps remaining, the caution flew due to Sage Karam wrecking on the frontstretch. The caution occurred just as Sammy Smith had pitted his No. 8 Pilot Chevrolet Camaro entry from ninth place under green flag conditions to address a flat right-front tire. During the caution period, some led by Allgaier and including Almirola, Creed, Eckes, Love, Kvapil, Mayer, Hemric, Hill and Ryan Sieg pitted while the rest led by Zilisch and including Sammy Smith remained on the track.
With the event sent into overtime, the start of the first overtime attempt featured Zilisch muscling his No. 88 WeatherTech Chevrolet Camaro entry ahead of Green while the field fanned out, bumped and jostled through the infield turns. As the field navigated through Turn 7, Alex Labbe spun while the field bumped and scattered to avoid the carnage. Despite Labbe’s incident, the race remained under green flag conditions while a bevy of Playoff contenders racing within the middle of the pack jostled amongst one another to race above the cutline.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Zilisch remained in the lead by more than a second over Green. Then as Zilisch navigated his way through the infield turns, the caution flew and the event was deemed official due to fluid reported on the track. With Zilisch ruled ahead at the moment of caution, he was able to cruise his way around the Charlotte Roval circuit for a final time before he cycled back to the frontstretch and claimed his 10th checkered flag of the 2025 season
With the victory, Zilisch notched his 11th career win in the NASCAR Xfinity Series division, his first at the Charlotte Roval, his sixth on road-course events and his first since he won at World Wide Technology Raceway in early September. Zilisch also became the first competitor to record double-digit victories in an Xfinity season since Kyle Busch made the previous achievement in 2016. The Charlotte Royal victory was also the 17th of the 2025 season for JR Motorsports and the 24th for the Chevrolet nameplate.
Having won the Round of 12 finale, Zilisch will commence next weekend’s Round of 8 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway atop the Playoff standings with 3,071 points as he continues his pursuit for his first series’ championship.
“Enough people stayed out with me to give me a gap,” Zilisch said on the frontstretch on the CW Network. “[It’s] So much fun getting to race at my hometown. [The] 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 a win. Feels really good to get 10 [wins]. Double digits is pretty awesome for my first year in the series. Now, we just go to go win a championship.”
Amid Zilisch’s victory, NASCAR took extensive time reviewing the race results at the moment of caution to determine the Playoff competitors who either transferred or did not transfer to the Round of 8. Following the review of the finish, Sammy Smith, who navigated his way up to third place on his four fresh tires, claimed the eighth and final transfer berth to the Round of 8 by a single point over Taylor Gray, the latter of whom ended up in 13th place.
“It was a hard fought day, for sure,” Smith said. “We brought speed. I’m very proud of our effort that we put in this week, to be able to put ourselves in this position. We knew it was gonna take a lot. I’m very proud of everyone at [JR Motorsports], everyone on my team. [Crew chief] Phillip [Bell] made a great call to pit. Obviously, it was a Hail Mary move and it worked. I’m just excited to go try to race for another championship here and put ourselves in a position where we can make the Final Four.”
“[I’m] Just obviously bummed out, right?” Gray said. “[I] Won’t be able to go race for a championship at the end of the year. We weren’t good enough today; we didn’t have a good Bristol.
We shouldn’t even have to be in this spot, but we are. We’re gonna take our loss and move on to the next four [races] and try to go win us a couple races.”
Like Sammy Smith, teammate Carson Kvapil along with Sam Mayer, Jesse Love and Sheldon Creed join Zilisch, Justin Allgaier and Brandon Jones as the eight Playoff contenders who will continue their quest to battle for the championship in the Round of 8.
On the flip side of emotions, Gray joined Nick Sanchez, Austin Hill and Harrison Burton as the four Playoff contenders whose Playoff run of the 2025 season came to an end.
With Zilisch winning the race, Austin Green notched a career-best 19th-place result in his 19th Xfinity start while Kaz Grala and Connor Mosack finished in the top five behind Sammy Smith. Jeb Burton and William Sawalich finished sixth and seventh, respectively, while Justin Allgaier posted an eighth-place result in his 500th Xfinity career start. Nick Sanchez and Christian Eckes completed the top 10 in the final running order.
There were six lead changes for five different leaders. The event featured six cautions for 13 laps. In addition, 29 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.
Charlotte Results:
1. Connor Zilisch, 61 laps led, Stage 1 winner
2. Austin Green
3. Sammy Smith
4. Kaz Grala
5. Connor Mosack, one lap led
6. Jeb Burton
7. William Sawalich
8. Justin Allgaier
9. Nick Sanchez, one lap led
10. Christian Eckes
11. Sheldon Creed
12. Jesse Love, four laps led, Stage 2 winner
13. Taylor Gray
14. Aric Almirola
15. Carson Kvapil
16. Parker Retzlaff
17. Daniel Hemric
18. Brandon Jones
19. Sam Mayer
20. Ryan Sieg
21. Josh Bilicki
22. Corey Day
23. Anthony Alfredo
24. Ryan Ellis
25. Sage Karam
26. Leland Honeyman
27. Jeremy Clements
28. Austin Hill, one lap led
29. Blaine Perkins
30. Alex Labbe, one lap down
31. Brennan Poole, one lap down
32. Matt DiBenedetto, one lap down
33. Kyle Sieg, one lap down
34. Harrison Burton, four laps down
35. Dean Thompson, six laps down
36. Daniel Dye – OUT, Transmission
37. Josh Williams – OUT, Fuel Pump
38. Preston Pardus – OUT, Transmission
*Bold indicates Playoff contenders.
Playoff standings:
1. Connor Zilisch – Advanced
2. Justin Allgaier – Advanced
3. Sam Mayer – Advanced
4. Brandon Jones – Advanced
5. Jesse Love – Advanced
6. Sheldon Creed – Advanced
7. Carson Kvapil – Advanced
8. Sammy Smith – Advanced
9. Taylor Gray – Eliminated
10. Nick Sanchez – Eliminated
11. Austin Hill – Eliminated
12. Harrison Burton – Eliminated
The Round of 8 in the 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs commences next Saturday, October 11, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada, for the Focused Health 302. The event’s broadcast time is slated to commence at 7:30 p.m. ET on the CW Network, PRN Radio and SiriusXM.
