Lesson Learned: Zilisch Bests SVG In Sonoma Xfinity Battle

Connor Zilisch celebrates with a burnout after winning at Sonoma Raceway. (John Harrelson/Nigel Kinrade Photography)

SONOMA, Calif. – After losing out to teammate and road course rival Shane van Gisbergen once, Connor Zilisch wasn’t about to let a second NASCAR Xfinity Series win get ripped from his grasp.

Using lessons learned from his near-miss at the Chicago (Ill.) Street Course, Zilisch successfully defended the top spot when it mattered Saturday at Sonoma Raceway, triumphing in a late duel with the New Zealander for his third Xfinity Series victory of the season.

Zilisch led a race-high 46 of 79 laps in the Pit Boss/FoodMaxx 250 – including every green-flag lap during the final stage – but van Gisbergen kept the teenager honest throughout and was breathing down the rear bumper of the No. 88 Chevrolet in the closing moments.

After both Zilisch and van Gisbergen short-pitted the end of the second stage to ensure track position for the last segment, the duo backed their pace up early in the final stint to save fuel and ensure they could duke it out to the finish between each other.

That dramatic battle came inside of two to go, when van Gisbergen overcooked turn 4A slightly and got into Zilisch, crossing up both cars for a moment and allowing Zilisch to gather his machine back up underneath him.

From there, though ‘SVG’ attempted to get back to his young protégé and tried an outside-inside cross in turn 11 coming back to the checkered flag, Zilisch was unfazed and held strong out front.

Crossing the finish line in front by .438 seconds, Zilisch earned his fourth career Xfinity Series victory and became the youngest driver in history to reach a quartet of victories at NASCAR’s second-highest level.

As he soaked in the moment on the frontstretch after several celebratory burnouts, Zilisch was just as appreciative of van Gisbergen racing him respectfully down the stretch as he was to come out on top.

“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 seven one time and got into him. Otherwise, it was awesome to get to race against him finally and battle with him the whole race long.

“It’s always the hardest trying to save fuel while someone’s breathing down your neck,” Zilisch added. “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.”

The next chance for the pair to race head-to-head in the Xfinity Series is in August, and Zilisch is already looking forward to that outing as well.

“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,” noted the young superstar.

Except for the times that Zilisch and van Gisbergen pitted to flip the two stages, one or the other was the leader for the entire 250-kilometer distance Saturday. They combined to lead all but nine laps.

The key to Zilisch’s eventual victory was getting off pit lane ahead of van Gisbergen, which gave Zilisch control of the final restart on lap 51. From there, despite fuel saving, the pair pulled away from their competition with relative ease.

After a Chicago finish where van Gisbergen roughed up Zilisch just a bit en route to the trophy, the 36-year-old Kiwi admitted afterward he didn’t want a second straight battle between them to come down to late contact.

“I gave him a bump into [turn] sevem, and he wheel-hopped … where I probably could have taken it, but I just waited,” said van Gisbergen, the defending race winner. “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.”

Joe Gibbs Racing rookie William Sawalich finished a career-best third, finally putting a whole event together after a disastrous first half of the year, followed by Big Machine Racing’s Nick Sanchez, who earned his third straight top five in fourth after his win at Georgia’s EchoPark Speedway two weeks ago.

Riley Herbst was fifth, with defending series champion Justin Allgaier, Taylor Gray, Carson Kvapil, Sammy Smith, and Sheldon Creed closing out the top 10.

Gray rallied from the rear of the field after an engine change late Friday, gaining valuable ground in the fight to make the playoffs and leaving Northern California 22 points above the cut line with seven races before the postseason reset.

Jeb Burton holds the final berth in the 12-driver playoff grid, 16 points clear of cousin Harrison Burton, who lost ground due to contact with Corey Day that spun him around at turn 11 inside of 15 to go.

Harrison Burton was running 11th at the time of his incident, which did not bring out a yellow flag. In fact, the stage cautions at laps 20 and 45 were the only slowdowns of the afternoon.

Race winner Zilisch completed the event in one hour, 56 minutes, and 12 seconds at an average speed of 81.176 mph.

Xfinity Series teams head next to the high-banked, one-mile concrete oval of Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway. Ryan Truex won last year’s race at the track known as the ‘Monster Mile’.

Broadcast coverage of the BetRivers 200 is slated for Saturday, July 19 at 4:30 p.m. ET, live on The CW, the Performance Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.