Connor Zilisch wins rain-shortened NASCAR Xfinity race at Dover

It was a surprisingly clean NASCAR Xfinity race at Dover Motor Speedway, and it never made it to the scheduled distance. When the rain arrived, Connor Zilisch was out front of the field. With more rain around daylight fading at a track without lights, NASCAR was forced to call it.

Driving the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, Zilisch collected his fifth career Xfinity win and his fourth of the 2025 season. He surpasses Kyle Busch as the youngest driver to reach five career wins, doing it all before his 19th birthday.

Aric Almirola finished second, Brandon Jones third, Justin Allgaier fourth, and Jesse Love fifth. Ryan Sieg, Taylor Gray, Sheldon Creed, William Sawalich, and Christian Eckes filled out the remainder of the top ten

Gray led the race from pole position, winning the opening stage without issue. However, a messy pit stop cost him a lot of his track position with Zilisch emerging as the new race leader. 

Zilisch dominated Stage 2 and while Almirola got close near the very end, he was not able to mount a true challenge.

At the start of the third stage, both Ross Chastain and Nick Sanchez fell out of the race with mechanical issues. Chastain said “the gear broke” when asked by The CW what happened. Chastain ended up finishing last (38th) in his worst NXS result since 2017.

Kyle Sieg stayed out for the final stage, but he was quickly swallowed up by those who chose to pit at the end of the stage.

Zilisch continued to lead as rain approached, forcing a yellow flag with 69 laps to go. NASCAR chose to red flag the event a few laps later, bringing the entire field down pit road.

This is the first NASCAR Xfinity race to be shortened by rain since the Chicago Street Course in 2023.

Photos from Dover – Race

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