Connor Zilisch seizes Charlotte OT opportunity to clinch 10th NASCAR victory of the season

NASCAR Xfinity driver Connor Zilisch won his 10th race of the season at Charlotte Roval on Saturday, October 4. With that, the young racing phenom extended his record for the most wins by a rookie in a single season.

Named Blue Cross NC 250 marked the 29th race of 2025. As Zilisch held off Austin Green, a caution on the final lap sent the race into overtime, ending the race and crowning Zilisch the winner.

Zilisch was ahead by 1.134 seconds when the yellow dropped. Completing the top five were Green, Sammy Smith, Kaz Grala, and Connor Mosack. Jeb Burton, William Sawalich, Justin Allgaier, Nick Sanchez, and Christian Eckes rounded off the top-10.

Zilisch, who won Stage 1, also led a race-high 61 of 68 laps. Reflecting on his day, the JR Motorsports driver told CW (quoted via Frontstretch),

“So much fun getting to race in my hometown. 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 the win,” Connor Zilisch continued. “Feels really good to get 10 (wins), double digits is pretty awesome for my first year in this series. Now we just gotta go win the championship.”

Connor Zilisch is now locked into the Round of 8. He sits at the top of the standings with a 57-point cushion on the cutoff line. Meanwhile, Taylor Gray, Sanchez, Austin Hill, and Harrison Burton were eliminated from the playoff picture.

Next up for the drivers is the Focused Health 302 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Scheduled for next Saturday, October 11, the 201-lap race will stream on CW (7:30 pm ET) with live radio updates on PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

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Connor Zilisch leads historic JR Motorsports sweep at Charlotte Motor Speedway

Connor Zilisch won the pole at Charlotte, and also led the field for the other four drivers starting inside the top five. Notably, all of them were from Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s JR Motorsports camp.

Qualifying in the second group, Zilisch pulled off a pole-winning lap of 96.503 miles per hour in 85.054 seconds. Zilisch told the reporters after qualifying.

“Just really proud of JR Motorsports…the cars we’re bringing to the track each week, It’s a lot of fun for all five of us that are here driving. Hopefully, we can have a good day today later in the race.”

Well, they did have a good day given that all JR Motorsports drivers except for Carson Kvapil finished the race inside the top-10. Kvapil, on the other hand, managed to salvage a P15, his second straight finish outside of the top-10 in his last two starts.