Connor Zilisch held off his JR Motorsports teammate and polesitter Shane van Gisbergen to claim his third NASCAR Xfinity Series victory of the season and the fourth of his career in Saturday’s Pit Boss/FoodMaxx 250 at Sonoma Raceway by 0.438 seconds.
“First, hats off to Shane,” Zilisch said. “That was awesome. “All race long, I felt like we were racing each other with respect. I wheel-hopped a little bit in Turn 7 one time and got into him. He continued, “Otherwise, it was awesome to get to race against him finally and battle with him the whole race long.”
Last week at the Chicago Street Course, van Gisbergen ran Zilisch wide in Turn 2. He then took the lead to win in a two-lap shootout. This week, Zilisch got his revenge and held off van Gisbergen after a bump in turn seven and his run on turn 11 on the final lap of the race.
“There was a chance that he could have gotten by me when he hit me, but he let me have it and raced me clean. I respect the hell out of him for that, and I’m looking forward to racing against him more.” Zilisch said. “We’re going to race each other at Watkins Glen, and that’s one of my favorite tracks, so I hope I can beat him again there.”
“I gave him a bump into 7, and he wheel-hopped, and I probably could have taken it, but I just waited,” said van Gisbergen. “I didn’t want to do it like that, and then we raced down the hill. What an awesome race. I had a blast all day—really, really fun.”
Both Zilisch (46 laps) and van Gisbergen (24 laps) combined to lead 70 of the 79 laps.
Friday night’s ARCA winner, William Sawalich, finished third.
“It was a great weekend for us. Everybody at Joe Gibbs Racing.” said Sawalich. “I can’t thank the ARCA guys enough for yesterday, and the Xfinity guys today. They put together a good Soundgear GR Supra that was as fast as Xfinity Mobile. Just a great, great day to be honest. Our early run speed at times was comparable to them, but our long run, we couldn’t keep up with them. They were pretty dang good.”
Nick Sanchez finished fourth, and Riley Herbst rounded out the top five.
“Yesterday, just my really poor qualifying effort, I felt like, I don’t think we could have ran with the 88 and the 9, but I think we could have been a third-place car. Just thanks to everybody at Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing, Monster Energy. It was fun to come back to the Xfinity Series.” said Herbst.
The race featured nine lead changes among four drivers, with two caution flags for a total of seven laps.
After Sonoma Raceway, Justin Allgaier holds the Xfinity Series points lead over Sam Mayer by 59 points, Austin Hill by 64, Connor Zilisch by 69, and Jesse Love by 104 points.
The Xfinity Series heads to Dover Motor Speedway in Dover, Delaware, for the BetRivers 200 on Saturday, July 19th at 4:30 pm ET.
NASCAR Xfinity Series Race Number 19
Race Results for the Pit Boss/FoodMaxx 250 – Saturday, July 12, 2025
Sonoma Raceway – Sonoma, CA – 1.99 – 1.99-mile road
Total Race Length – 79 Laps – 157.21 Miles
| Pos | St | No | Driver | S1 | S2 | S3 | Points | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 88 | Connor Zilisch # | 9 | 7 | 0 | 46 | Running |
| 2 | 1 | 9 | Shane Van Gisbergen(i) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Running |
| 3 | 5 | 18 | William Sawalich # | 0 | 0 | 0 | 34 | Running |
| 4 | 23 | 48 | Nick Sanchez # | 0 | 0 | 0 | 33 | Running |
| 5 | 15 | 19 | Riley Herbst(i) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Running |
| 6 | 10 | 7 | Justin Allgaier | 0 | 2 | 0 | 40 | Running |
| 7 | 11 | 54 | Taylor Gray # | 0 | 0 | 0 | 30 | Running |
| 8 | 7 | 1 | Carson Kvapil # | 3 | 5 | 0 | 43 | Running |
| 9 | 6 | 8 | Sammy Smith | 4 | 3 | 0 | 43 | Running |
| 10 | 9 | 0 | Sheldon Creed | 5 | 4 | 0 | 40 | Running |
| 11 | 33 | 32 | Austin Green | 0 | 0 | 0 | 26 | Running |
| 12 | 16 | 21 | Austin Hill | 0 | 0 | 0 | 25 | Running |
| 13 | 8 | 20 | Brandon Jones | 2 | 1 | 0 | 43 | Running |
| 14 | 25 | 91 | Josh Bilicki | 0 | 0 | 0 | 23 | Running |
| 15 | 18 | 11 | Josh Williams | 0 | 0 | 0 | 22 | Running |
| 16 | 36 | 70 | Will Rodgers | 0 | 9 | 0 | 23 | Running |
| 17 | 3 | 41 | Sam Mayer | 1 | 0 | 0 | 30 | Running |
| 18 | 35 | 26 | Dean Thompson # | 0 | 0 | 0 | 19 | Running |
| 19 | 12 | 31 | Blaine Perkins | 8 | 6 | 0 | 26 | Running |
| 20 | 17 | 27 | Jeb Burton | 0 | 8 | 0 | 20 | Running |
| 21 | 19 | 25 | Harrison Burton | 0 | 0 | 0 | 16 | Running |
| 22 | 32 | 44 | Brennan Poole | 0 | 0 | 0 | 15 | Running |
| 23 | 13 | 42 | Anthony Alfredo | 6 | 0 | 0 | 19 | Running |
| 24 | 14 | 17 | Corey Day | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13 | Running |
| 25 | 37 | 28 | Kyle Sieg | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | Running |
| 26 | 24 | 99 | Matt DiBenedetto | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | Running |
| 27 | 27 | 71 | Ryan Ellis | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | Running |
| 28 | 34 | 4 | Parker Retzlaff | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | Running |
| 29 | 28 | 5 | Kris Wright | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | Running |
| 30 | 30 | 51 | Jeremy Clements | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | Running |
| 31 | 38 | 45 | Brad Perez | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | Running |
| 32 | 31 | 10 | Daniel Dye # | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | Running |
| 33 | 22 | 14 | Connor Mosack(i) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Running |
| 34 | 21 | 16 | Christian Eckes # | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | Running |
| 35 | 29 | 39 | Ryan Sieg | 10 | 10 | 0 | 4 | Running |
| 36 | 26 | 53 | Sage Karam | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | Transmission |
| 37 | 20 | 7 | Alex Labbe | 7 | 0 | 0 | 5 | Suspension |
| 38 | 4 | 2 | Jesse Love | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | Rear Gear |
