While the season statistics show NASCAR Xfinity Series rookie Connor Zilisch with a 10-win trophy haul—more than twice as many as any other championship-eligible competitors—when it comes to this weekend’s title-deciding Phoenix one-mile oval, the competition couldn’t be tighter.
Zilisch’s JR Motorsports teammate Justin Allgaier is the only driver among the Xfinity Series Championship 4 with a previous win at Phoenix Raceway. He boasts two career Phoenix victories and won the title last year with a runner-up effort in a back-up car.
Another title contender, Richard Childress Racing driver Jesse Love, has never finished outside the top-10 in three series starts at Phoenix and boasts the best overall average result among the four drivers (also including JR Motorsports rookie Carson Kvapil) competing for the title Saturday.
“I know statistically as far as wins go, it looks very lopsided (in Zilisch’s favor), but we’re actually tied in amount of laps led, we (Allgaier’s team) have the most stage (wins) and we’ve really done all the right things this year,” Allgaier said.
Love, a native-Californian, finished runner-up in his first Xfinity Series race at Phoenix in 2023 and has never finished worse than ninth for a Championship 4 best 5.7 average finish at the track.
Although he has only a single win in 2025, he also likes his chances of hoisting the championship trophy this weekend. He was in contention to win last year’s race, too.
“I keep hearing about and know Justin is really good here, but I don’t think Justin’s any better than I am at this race track,” said Love, noting his chance at the Phoenix trophy ended last year after contact with Allgaier and race winner Riley Herbst on an overtime restart.
“He (Allgaier) has more experience than me, but I feel as confident as he does or probably more. This place is technical and it’s interesting and I’ve had a lot of races here, probably coming up on 10 (in assorted series) and between truck and Xfinity, I’ve never run outside the top-10 here, so there’s some confidence in that.
“I had to think about it all offseason, all year that I was a couple hundred feet from closing out last year with a win here before the caution came out and obviously, Justin put us in the fence after that. I know I can put myself in same position this year, and obviously the stakes are even higher, so there’s some good to come out of that.”
- A Second Championship For Larson, A Fifteenth For Hendrick, And A Night To Remember For NASCAR - November 4, 2025
- Denny Hamlin’s Phoenix Pole Says What Words Don’t Have To - November 1, 2025
- Ty Majeski’s Two-Tire Bet Nearly Pays Off at Phoenix - November 1, 2025