We’re running out of adjectives to describe how incredible 19-year-old Connor Zilisch is performing during his rookie season in the NASCAR Xfinity Series this year. The driver once again dominated from the pole in Saturday night’s Nu Way 200 Sauced by Blues Hog at World Wide Technology Raceway, and he endured a couple of sketchy late-race restarts to claim his ninth win of the season.
“Yeah, that one was stressful,” Zilisch said. “Man, that’s awesome. Four [wins] in a row, I think that’s seven of the last eight for our WeatherTech Chevrolet team. Thank you to WeatherTech. It’s Cooper MacNeil’s birthday tomorrow, so happy birthday. It’s my mom’s birthday today, so happy birthday, mom. I love you. Yeah, man, that’s awesome. Four in a row.”
Zilisch held off a hungry William Sawalich, who needed a win to advance to the Playoffs, by a margin of 1.506 seconds in the closing laps. With the win, Zilisch officially wrapped up the regular-season championship, and he’ll head into the Playoffs with a 59-point advantage over the cutline.
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OFFICIAL RACE RESULTS
While Connor Zilisch wrapped up the regular-season championship last night, the 12-driver NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoff Field was officially set. Joining the locked-in crowd on Saturday night at Gateway were Taylor Gray, Sheldon Creed, and Harrison Burton.
Here is the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoff Grid heading into the Playoff-opener next weekend at Bristol:
Denny Hamlin doesn’t feel he put in his best effort on his qualifying lap Saturday at World Wide Technology Raceway, but the lap was good enough for the driver to secure his second consecutive pole position to open up the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.
“I thought I could have done a little bit better job for the team,” Hamlin explained in a post-qualifying interview on TruTV. “But I’m proud of this whole Progressive Toyota team. [Crew Chief] Chris [Gayle] and the whole guys, making really great adjustments. That’s what they did so well last week, which was make those good adjustments before qualifying. Now, we’ve got great track position. Just have to maintain it, and we’ll be in good shape.”
Hamlin topped Kyle Larson, who was over the moon with a runner-up qualifying effort at a track that has been difficult for Hendrick Motorsports to find good results at, by 0.021 seconds.
Here are where the 16 Playoff Drivers will start on Sunday at Gateway: Hamlin (1st), Larson (2nd), Chase Briscoe (3rd), Ross Chastain (4th), Ryan Blaney (5th), William Byron (6th), Tyler Reddick (7th), Christopher Bell (8th), Austin Cindric (9th), Josh Berry (12th), Joey Logano (13th), Bubba Wallace (14th), Austin Dillon (15th), Shane van Gisbergen (18th), Chase Elliott (19th), and Alex Bowman (25th).
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Official Enjoy Illinois 300 Starting Lineup
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