In a stacked fight against a trio of JR Motorsports’ competitors, Jesse Love and Richard Childress Racing capitalized when it mattered most as they motored their way to win both the 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship Race and the overall championship at Phoenix Raceway on Saturday, November 1.
Love, the 2023 ARCA Menards Series champion from Menlo Park, California, led four times for 35 of 200 scheduled laps in a finale where he started in sixth place and struggled through the event’s first stage period by drifting out of the top-10 mark and being scored in 12th place when the stage concluded. Then, after climbing up to fifth place following the second stage period, Love received a stellar 12.8-second pit service from his team that enabled him to lead the field at the start of the third and final stage period.
After being outdueled by title rival Justin Allgaier through two restarts to commence the final stage, the long runs in the closing segments of the finale combined with the night conditions played in favor of Love as he reeled in and intimidated Allgaier through every turn and straightaway. Then after exiting pit road first with 46 laps remaining amid a late-race caution, Love had another title rival, this being his friend, Connor Zilisch to duke for the title while Allgaier lost ground due to having a slow pit service.
Despite Zilisch’s late attempt in storming to the lead during the final restart with 42 laps remaining, Love reeled in and overtook Zilisch with 25 laps remaining. From there, Love motored away from the field and his title rivals as he proceeded to claim the checkered flag and cap off his sophomore Xfinity Series season with both a race victory and his first championship in the finale.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, Brandon Jones notched his second Xfinity pole position of the 2025 season with a pole-winning lap at 130.957 mph in 27.490 seconds. Jones shared the front row with teammate Taylor Gray, the latter of whom qualified at 130.468 mph in 27.593 seconds. Meanwhile, Championship 4 finalists Connor Zilisch, Justin Allgaier, Jesse Love and Carson Kvapil qualified fourth, fifth, sixth and 14th, respectively.
Prior to the finale, Daniel Dye dropped to the rear of the field in a backup car. Justin Bonsignore, who filled in for William Sawalich, also dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments that were made to the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota entry.
When the green flag waved and the finale commenced, teammates Brandon Jones and Taylor Gray dueled against one another for the lead and in front of the field that dived through the frontstretch’s dogleg. Entering the first turn, Gray drove his entry deep from the inside lane in an attempt to stall Jones’ momentum, but the latter used the outside lane to motor the No. 20 Menards Toyota Supra ahead through the first two turns. Amid Gray’s intimidation, Jones fended off his teammate to lead the first lap.
Over the next four laps, Jones stabilized his early advantage to as high as three-tenths of a second over teammate Gray while Sheldon Creed, who lost third place to Connor Zilisch on the opening lap, regained the spot as he trailed the lead by more than a second. Behind, Championship 4 finalists Zilisch, Justin Allgaier and Jesse Love were racing from fourth to sixth, respectively, in front of Aric Almirola, while Carson Kvapil, the fourth Championship 4 finalist, navigated his way to 12th from 13th.
Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Jones continued to lead by a tenth of a second over teammate Gray and by half a second over third-place Creed. Behind, Allgaier, who overtook teammate Zilisch for fourth place on the track and for the championship lead, retained the spot while Love and Kvapil pursued from seventh and 11th, respectively. By then, Almirola was up to sixth place while Dean Thompson, Nick Sanchez and Ryan Sieg were racing in the top 10, respectively.
During the following lap, Gray overtook teammate Jones for the lead. Another two laps later, Creed overtook Jones for the runner-up spot before Allgaier navigated his way up to third place during the next lap. As Gray proceeded to lead by seven-tenths of a second at the Lap 15 mark, Allgaier led teammate Zilisch for third place by six-tenths of a second as the latter moved up to fourth place behind Allgaier. Meanwhile, Love was mired in seventh place while Kvapil cracked the top 10 in 10th place.
At the Lap 25 mark, Gray slightly extended his advantage to eight-tenths of a second over Creed while both Allgaier and Zilisch trailed in third and fourth, respectively, by two seconds. Behind, Almirola and Jones occupied fifth and sixth on the track, Love retained seventh and Kvapil was up to ninth behind Sanchez. Over the next 10 laps, Love dropped to 10th, Kvapil gained two spots to seventh and the top-two duo of Allgaier and Zilisch remained in third and fourth, respectively. Amid the early championship battle, Gray had his advantage decrease to three-tenths of a second over Creed.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 45, Gray captured his third Xfinity stage victory of the 2025 season. Creed followed suit in second by half a second while Allgaier, Zilisch, Sanchez, Kvapil, Kyle Sieg, Almirola, Sammy Smith and Jones were scored in the top 10, respectively. Meanwhile, Love was the lowest-running Championship 4 finalist on the track in 12th place behind Ryan Sieg, while Jeb Burton, who cut a right-front tire and pitted before taking his entry to the garage just past the Lap 35 mark without drawing a caution, was scored at the tail end of the field in 38th place.
Under the first stage break period, the lead lap field led by Gray pitted for a first round of pit service. Following the pit stops, Gray exited pit road first and he was followed by Zilisch, Creed, Allgaier, Almirola, Jones, Sanchez, Kyle Sieg, Love and Kvapil, with the latter losing a handful of spots due to a slow pit service.
The second stage period started on Lap 55 as Gray and Zilisch occupied the front row. At the start, the latter two dueled for the lead in front of the field through the frontstretch’s dogleg before Zilisch used the inside lane to motor his No. 88 WeatherTech Chevrolet Camaro entry ahead entering the first turn. While Gray was trying to fend off both Allgaier and Creed for the runner-up spot, Zilisch proceeded to lead the next lap.
Through the Lap 60 mark, Zilisch was leading by a tenth of a second over teammate and a hard-charging Allgaier while Gray, Creed and Almirola followed suit. Two laps later, Allgaier reassumed the lead in the championship battle as he overtook Zilisch through the backstretch to also assume the race lead for the first time. As Allgaier proceeded to lead by four-tenths of a second over Zilisch by Lap 70, their other two Championship 4 rivals, Love and Kvapil, were mired in eighth and 10th, respectively, while Creed, Almirola and Gray continued to race in the top five on the track in front of too Sanchez and Jones.
By Lap 80, Allgaier extended his advantage over the race and the championship battle by more than two seconds over Zilisch, while Almirola, Creed and Gray trailed on the track by as far back as five seconds. Behind, Love and Kvapil each moved up to seventh and ninth, respectively, but they trailed Allgaier by between six and seven seconds.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 90, Allgaier notched his 15th Xfinity stage victory of the 2025 season. Teammate Zilisch trailed by nearly three seconds while Almirola, Creed, Love, Gray, Sanchez, Jones, Kvapil and Ryan Sieg were scored in the top 10, respectively.
During the second stage break period, the lead lap field led by Allgaier returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Love, whose No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet team executed a 12.8-second pit stop, exited pit road first and he was followed by Allgaier, Almirola, Gray, Creed, Jones, Zilisch, Justin Bonsignore, Sanchez and Kvapil. Amid the pit stops, both Zilisch and Kvapil endured slow pit services from their respective JR Motorsports pit crews.
With 98 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Love and Allgaier occupied the front row. At the start, the latter two dueled for the lead through the frontstretch’s dogleg before Allgaier used the inside lane to muscle his No. 7 BRANDT Chevrolet Camaro entry ahead of Love, Almirola, Gray and the field through the first two turns. As the field fanned out through the backstretch, Love retained the runner-up spot over both Almirola and Creed while Zilisch carved his way up to fifth place. In front of the field, Allgaier led the next lap.
With 90 laps remaining, Allgaier was leading by four-tenths of a second over title rival Love while Almirola and Creed followed suit, respectively. Meanwhile, Zilisch trailed in fifth place by three seconds while Kvapil was mired in 11th place and trailing the lead by five seconds. Two laps later, the caution flew when Leland Honeyman, who was racing in 24th place, spun through Turn 4 and the frontstretch after he received contact from Daniel Dye. During the caution period, some, including Jones, Ryan Sieg, Corey Day, Sammy Smith, Christian Eckes, Kyle Sieg, Brenden Queen, Parker Retzlaff, Harrison Burton, Ryan Ellis, Brennan Poole, Blaine Perkins and Nick Leitz pitted their respective entries while the rest, led by Allgaier remained on the track.
The start of the next restart began with 82 laps remaining and featured Allgaier and Love dueling in front of a fanned-out field through the frontstretch’s dogleg as Creed tried to get beneath Love and ignite a three-wide battle for the lead. With Almirola also trying to squeeze his way in between Allgaier and Love, Allgaier fended off Love through the backstretch before he motored ahead from the outside lane and led the next lap. With Love getting pressured by Almirola, Creed and Zilisch for second place on the track, Allgaier led by three-tenths of a second with 80 laps remaining.
With 75 laps remaining, Allgaier was leading by half a second over Love and by a second over third-place Almirola while Zilisch retained fourth place after he claimed the spot four laps earlier. Meanwhile, Corey Day, who restarted 10th, muscled up to fifth place and Eckes, who pitted for fresh tires, carved his way up to sixth place while Creed, Gray, Sammy Smith, Ryan Sieg and Kvapil trailed in the top 11, respectively.
Fifteen laps later, the battle for both the lead of the race and the championship fight ignited as Love, who reeled in Allgaier by a tenth of a second during the previous lap, trailed the latter by three-tenths of a second. As Love continued his late challenge on Allgaier for the lead through every corner and straightaway, Zilisch trailed his top-two title rivals in fourth place on the track by three seconds while Kvapil was mired back in 12th place and trailing the lead by 11 seconds.
Then with 49 laps remaining, the caution flew when Ryan Sieg, who was racing in the top 10 and filling in for the suspended Sam Mayer in the No. 41 Audibel/Haas Factory Team Ford Mustang entry, was bumped and sent for a long spin exiting the backstretch before he then backed his entry against the Turn 3 outside wall and sustained terminal rear-end damage. At the moment of caution, Allgaier fended off Love’s repeated challenges for the lead while Almirola, Zilisch, Day, Sammy Smith, Eckes, Jones, Kyle Sieg, Creed, Harrison Burton and Kvapil were scored in the top 12, respectively.
During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Allgaier pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Love and Zilisch exited first and second, respectively, ahead of Almirola while Allgaier lost three spots and exited pit road fourth.
When the race restarted with 42 laps remaining. Zilisch led the next lap and the following lap while Almirola, Allgaier, Love and Sammy Smith followed suit.
Down to the final 35 laps of the event, Zilisch was leading both the finale and the championship battle by four-tenths of a second over title rival Love as the latter overtook Almirola two laps earlier. Behind, Allgaier trailed in fourth place on the track by eight-tenths of a second while Sammy Smith, Jones, Day, Creed, Gray and Kyle Sieg were racing in the top 10, respectively. Meanwhile, Kvapil was mired in 14th place and trailing the lead by more than five seconds.
Ten laps later, Zilisch continued to lead by a tenth of a second over a hard-charging Love, one-and-a-half seconds over third-place Almirola and by two seconds over fourth-place Allgaier. Shortly after, Love dueled and overtook Zilisch to assume the top spot as the former led the next lap. With the clean air to his advantage, Love proceeded to stretch his lead to half a second over Zilisch with 20 laps remaining. By then, Allgaier continued to race in fourth place by three-and-a-half seconds while Kvapil was mired in 15th place and trailing the lead by 14 seconds.
Down to the final 15 laps of the event, Love continued to lead by seven-tenths of a second over Zilisch while Almirola and Allgaier trailed by one and four seconds in third and fourth, respectively. Love proceeded to stretch his advantage to more than a second over Zilisch and Almirola with 10 laps remaining as Allgaier, who was overtaken by Jones for fourth place on the track, trailed by five seconds.
With eight laps remaining, Almirola overtook Zilisch for the runner-up spot on the track. This allowed Almirola to place Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 19 Toyota team in a prime position to claim the owner’s championship over Zilch’s No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet team. As Almirola proceeded to fend off Zilisch for the runner-up spot, Love retained the lead by more than a second with five laps remaining. By then, Allgaier, whose hopes of winning back-to-back championships were beginning to fade, retained fifth place while Kvapil trailed the lead by 18 seconds in 15th place.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Love remained in the lead by a second over Almirola and by two seconds over Zilisch. With the latter two unable to reel in Love, Love was able to smoothly cycle his No. 2 Whelen Chevrolet Camaro entry around Phoenix for a final time before he returned to the frontstretch and claimed the checkered flag by eight-tenths of a second for both the finale victory and the championship.
By winning for a second time in 2025 and adding his win column to three, Love became the 35th competitor overall to win a NASCAR Xfinity Series championship. He also became the first California native in three years and the 18th Chevrolet competitor overall to accomplish the feat of winning a title in NASCAR’s No. 2 division series.
Tonight’s finale at Phoenix marks the eighth time over the previous 10 seasons and during the series’ current Playoff-elimination format where the finale was won by the championship-winning competitor. In addition, Love became the ninth competitor to be crowned an Xfinity champion for the first time under the format.
The 2025 Xfinity Series championship was the sixth for Richard Childress Racing (RCR), the organization’s first since 2019 and the second for veteran crew chief Danny Stockman Jr., as Love will return to the organization and attempt to defend his title in 2026.
Love’s 2025 championship, which occurred in his second full-time campaign in the Xfinity circuit, occurred in a season where he commenced the year by winning the season-opening event at Daytona International Speedway in February. Despite not winning again prior to the finale, he generated a total of four poles, nine top-five results, 22 top-10 results, 297 laps led and an average-finishing result of 11.1 throughout the 33-race schedule. By winning only the first and final race of an Xfinity season en route to a championship, Love became the first competitor since Tyler Reddick in 2018 to achieve the feat.
“It’s been a tough year for me,” Love, who fought tears of joy, said on the frontstretch on the CW Network. “Man, I’ve just put so much work into it. People like my dad, Scott Speed and my whole No. 2 team have worked just as hard for my dream as I have for my own. For one last time, this car was fast as Xfinity mobile. [The championship] really hasn’t set in yet. I tried to just tune out all the emotion. It doesn’t feel real at all.”
“We were so bad to start,” Love added. “I couldn’t believe how bad we were. We were awful and Danny [Stockman] put one of his magic wrenches in [the car] and we came to life. This means the world to me and everybody that’s been on this journey with me over the last few years, especially the last eight months or so. I’ve really tried to just rebuild myself and come back better. I feel so clean and relieved.”
During his post-championship interview, Love took a moment to acknowledge the late-race battle for the title with his fellow competitor, rival and best friend, Zilisch.
“[Zilisch]’s my best friend in the whole world, but not when we’re racing each other,” Love said. “We race each other hard, but fair. I knew I had to take [the lead] there [with 25 laps remaining]. He was running a really good race. My car was just better tonight in allowing me to roll the center, get off the corner better. Hats off to the No. 88 team and Connor for all they’ve done this year, but tonight’s about my guys.”
As Love celebrated a championship, Zilisch was left emotionally heartbroken on pit road with a runner-up result in the final championship standings. Amid the disappointment of not adding an Xfinity title to his resume, Zilisch capped off the 2025 season on a historic note with a season-high 10 victories, eight poles, 20 top-five results, 23 top-10 results, 1,013 laps led and an average-finishing result of 8.0 through 32 starts. In addition, the Charlotte, North Carolina, phenom claimed the 2025 Xfinity Series’ Rookie-of-the-Year title as he now prepares to campaign in his first full-time season in the Cup Series division with Trackhouse Racing in 2026.
“I came into the weekend and I told my entire team [that] we got to give it 100% this week and as long as we walk out of this place knowing we did that, I’ll be proud of us,” Zilisch said. “We did that today. We fought all day long and threw everything we had at [the car], but unfortunately, our WeatherTech Chevrolet, we just didn’t quite have what we needed. It doesn’t take away from anything we’ve done this year. It’s just you work all year long. You bust your ass for 33 weeks and I feel like we’ve done the best job we could all year long. We just didn’t have it today. I’m so proud of this team. We have nothing to hang our heads about, but yeah, this one’s gonna sting.”
Like Zilisch, teammate Allgaier, who led a race-high 83 laps, was disappointed with a fifth-place result at Phoenix that left him with a third-place result in the final standings overall and two points spots short of winning back-to-back titles. Nevertheless, Allgaier caps off the 2025 season with three victories, two poles, 15 top-five results, 20 top-10 results, 1,056 laps led and an average-finishing result of 12.3.
While Allgaier is set to remain at JR Motorsports for another Xfinity title bid in 2026, his crew chief remains to be determined as Jim Pohlman, who led Allgaier to his first title a year ago, is transitioning to Richard Childress Racing to serve as Kyle Busch’s Cup Series crew chief.
“[I] Felt like we did all the right things tonight and we still came out of here really short,” Allgaier said. “Disappointing. [I’m] Bummed with the way that [the season] ended, but still, we’re so blessed to this and to be here. I couldn’t ask for a better team. We’ll move on and go to Daytona at the beginning of the year [in February]. It seems weird that this is the last one, but we’ll go make the most of the off-season [period].”
Lastly, rookie Carson Kvapil settled in fourth place in the final standings with a 13th-place result at Phoenix. Despite struggling to keep pace with his other three title rivals, Kvapil concluded his first full-time Xfinity campaign with seven top-five results, 14 top-10 results, 104 laps led and an average-finishing result of 13.7. Like Allgaier, Kvapil is scheduled to return as a full-time Xfinity competitor in 2026.
“I can’t be thankful enough for everybody that gave me this opportunity,” Kvapil said. “We just fought a little bit of handling all day. I thought we were gonna have a really good chance at [the championship]. It just didn’t seem like we made [the car] better from [the end of the first stage period and the rest of the event]. It seemed like the other people were able to make their stuff faster and better. Hopefully, next season, we can be a few spots better and hopefully, we can be in the Final Four again to have this opportunity. It was a fun run. I had a really fun rookie season.”
Meanwhile, Aric Almirola, who finished in second place behind the champion Jesse Love on the track, accomplished his feat of clinching the owner’s championship for Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 19 Toyota Supra team. As a result, Joe Gibbs Racing achieved its eighth owner’s title in the Xfinity circuit, its second with the No. 19 team and its first since 2022.
Brandon Jones, who claimed fifth place in the final driver’s standings, finished fourth on the track at Phoenix while Sammy Smith, Taylor Gray, Sheldon Creed, Austin Hill and Justin Bonsignore completed the top 10 on the track.
Notably, this event marked the final sponsor entitlement of Xfinity for NASCAR’s No. 2 division series following a 11-year journey. Beginning in 2026, O’Reilly Auto Parts will take over the sponsorship and rebrand the series as the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series.
The 2025 finale featured 15 lead changes for six different leaders, and four cautions for 31 laps. In addition, 23 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.
Race Results:
1. Jesse Love, 35 laps led
2. Aric Almirola
3. Connor Zilisch, 27 laps led
4. Brandon Jones, 10 laps led
5. Justin Allgaier, 83 laps led, Stage 2 winner
6. Sammy Smith
7. Taylor Gray, 44 laps led, Stage 1 winner
8. Sheldon Creed
9. Austin Hill
10. Justin Bonsignore
11. Harrison Burton
12. Kyle Sieg
13. Carson Kvapil
14. Corey Day
15. Nick Sanchez
16. Christian Eckes
17. Dean Thompson
18. Brennan Poole
19. Brenden Queen
20. Nick Leitz
21. Ryan Ellis
22. Connor Mosack
23. Anthony Alfredo
24. Leland Honeyman, one lap down, one lap led
25. Blaine Perkins, one lap down
26. Josh Williams, one lap down
27. Parker Retzlaff, one lap down
28. Daniel Dye, one lap down
29. Stefan Parsons, two laps down
30. Joey Gase, two laps down
31. Garrett Smithley, two laps down
32. Josh Bilicki, four laps down
33. Jeremy Clements, four laps down
34. Glen Reen, four laps down
35. Patrick Emerling, eight laps down
36. Dawson Cram, nine laps down
37. Ryan Sieg – OUT, Accident
38. Jeb Burton – OUT, Accident
*Bold indicates Championship 4 contenders
Final standings
1. Jesse Love
2. Connor Zilisch
3. Justin Allgaier
4. Carson Kvapil
5. Brandon Jones
6. Austin Hill
7. Taylor Gray
8. Sammy Smith
9. Sheldon Creed
10. Sam Mayer
11. Nick Sanchez
12. Harrison Burton
The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series’ teams and competitors enter an off-season period before returning to action at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida, on February 14, 2026, for a new season of competition.
