NASCAR
Connor Zilisch wins Sonoma, besting road course warrior Shane van Gisbergen
SONOMA, Calif. – One of NASCAR’s brightest young talents put on another impressive display under the greatest pressure at Sonoma Raceway. Days shy of his 19th birthday, Connor Zilisch stands tall in victory lane after vanquishing NASCAR’s best road course racer. The JR Motorsports driver stood toe-to-toe against Shane van Gisbergen all afternoon, and came out on top after fighting off every charge. The teenager now has three checkered flags on the Xfinity Series season, and only seems to get better with every start.
It was very evident early on that front row starters Shane van Gisbergen and Connor Zilisch were the two best in class. At one point in Stage 1, this duo held a nearly 10-second lead over third-place. Both of them opting to flip the opening Stage gave this win to Sam Mayer.
On pit road, Zilisch overtook van Gisbergen and held this position for most of Stage 2. After SVG burned up his rear tires late in this run, Zilisch got back by him for the lead. Once again, these two pitting handed the Stage win to Brandon Jones.
Stage 3 saw Zilisch and SVG cycle back to the top two spots. Arguably the two most stout road racing talents in stock cars today proceeded to put on a masterclass for this entire run. Going the distance without any cautions for on-track incident, fuel savings were soon a big factor.
With 12 laps to go a hard-charging SVG turned on the jets from second-place, quickly erasing his gap to Zilisch. The No. 88 Chevrolet hardly put a wheel wrong while out front. Driving the absolute life out of his car to make up ground, SVG simply ran out of time. The No. 9 ultimately followed Zilisch across the line. As late as turn 11 coming to the flag, SVG was using every tool in his book to get by his teenager teammate, but to no avail.
“First hats off to Shane,” Zilisch said. “That was awesome, all race long. You know, I felt like we were racing each other with respect. I wheel hopped a little bit into [turn] seven that one time and got into him. But other than that, it was awesome to get to race against him finally, and battle with him a whole race long. But so proud of this Roto-Rooter Chevrolet 88 team. We did such an awesome job all weekend long, just executing and our car was as fast as Xfinity Mobile from the moment we got here. We made the right adjustments, and here we are. Victory Lane feels good.”
“It’s always the hardest trying to save fuel while someone’s breathing down your neck. But, yeah, I mean, there was a chance he could have gotten by me when he hit me and he let me have it and, you know, race me clean. So, I respect the hell out of him for that. And, you know, I’m looking forward to racing against him more. You know, we got to race against each other at Watkins Glen, and that’s one of my favorite tracks. So I hope I can beat him again there.”
“I didn’t want to have to do anything dirty to win this race, and I’m glad I didn’t and glad I got to do it fair and square. And I learned a lot racing around him, and he’s got so many years of experience on me that I can learn from. So yeah, very glad to get the opportunity to race against him. Glad he came to America to race against us and really proud of this team. And it’s awesome to get our third win of the year at a track this beautiful and with some fans, so awesome. So thank you guys for coming out and enjoy the race tomorrow!”
A distant 13 seconds behind the top duo, rookie William Sawalich earned a career-best showing in third. He beat out fellow rookie Nick Sanchez and Xfinity veteran Riley Herbst in the top-five. Justin Allgaier, Taylor Gray, Carson Kvapil, Sammy Smith, and Sheldon Creed rounded out the top-10. This marked the first-ever Xfinity Series road race where half of the top-10 were rookies.
JR Motorsports continues their blistering and record-setting 2025 season, now with a tenth victory from a sixth different driver. All five of their drivers also ended Sonoma in the top-10 as well. Sonoma also marked a sixth-straight JRM road course win. JRM definitely appears to be the top of the Xfinity Series field as the Playoffs near.
Speaking of the postseason, Sonoma troubles for Harrison Burton pin him and cousin Jeb on either side of the cut line. 16 points now separate both Burtons. They’re two of many vying for one of the five Playoff berths left over the last seven regular season races.
Xfinity cars will be back in action Saturday from Dover Motor Speedway. The Monster Mile will take its turn wreaking havoc the field, as everyone tries to be first in The First State. The BetRivers 200 goes green at 4:30 p.m. on The CW, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Written by Peter Stratta
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