Following another dominant display from Shane van Gisbergen on the streets of Chicago, the NASCAR Xfinity Series was at Sonoma Raceway on Saturday for the running of the Pit Boss/Food Maxx 250, which saw he and JR Motorsports teammate Connor Zilisch dominate the 79-lap race. While van Gisbergen got the best of Zilisch in Chicago, it was Zilisch who had the upper hand in Wine Country on Saturday, holding off a late challenge from van Gisbergen in the closing laps to win by 0.438 seconds.
Back-to-back weekends of these two battling it out to the checkered flag! 🏁 pic.twitter.com/hpr21UoWxu
— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) July 12, 2025
How the Pit Boss/Food Maxx 250 unfolded at Sonoma Raceway
After claiming the pole for Saturday's race, it looked like van Gisbergen was on his way to backing up his Chicago win. Zilisch made it clear with a pass for the lead on Lap 3 that it was going to be another battle between the JR Motorsports teammates. California's Jesse Love became the first retiree from the race on Lap 12 after dealing with a broken rear end housing. While the battle continued up front between Zilisch and van Gisbergen, the two pitted before the stage conclusion and Sam Mayer stayed out get the stage win.
Stage 2 was a rinse and repeat up front and even included a thumbs-up from van Gisbergen as he and Zilisch traded the lead. The two drove away to a commanding lead once again, but gave up stage points, leaving the stage win to Brandon Jones in another caution-free stint.
Connor Zilisch holds off Shane van Gisbergen to win thriller at Sonoma: Full finishing order and results
Despite a a stack-up with 27 laps to go that left Christian Eckes with heavy damage and some late spins from Harrison Burton with 15 to go and Corey Day with three laps remaining, the final stage proceeded without a caution for incident and came down to Zilisch and van Gisbergen. Although the New Zealander got to Zilisch's bumper multiple times and had a run going into the final turn on the last lap, it was Zilisch standing tall after leading a race-high 46 laps.
The 1-2 finish from JR Motorsports punctuated a dominant day overall for the organization as all five of its cars finished inside the top 10. Coming off a win in Friday's ARCA West race at Sonoma, rookie William Sawalich recorded his best career Xfinity Series finish in third.
Pit Boss/Food Maxx 250 finishing position | Driver | Points |
|---|---|---|
Winner | Connor Zilisch | 46 |
2nd | Shane van Gisbergen | 0 |
3rd | William Sawalich | 34 |
4th | Nick Sanchez | 33 |
5th | Riley Herbst | 0 |
6th | Justin Allgaier | 40 |
7th | Taylor Gray | 30 |
8th | Carson Kvapil | 43 |
9th | Sammy Smith | 43 |
10th | Sheldon Creed | 40 |
11th | Austin Green | 26 |
12th | Austin Hill | 25 |
13th | Brandon Jones | 43 |
14th | Josh Bilicki | 23 |
15th | Josh Williams | 22 |
16th | Will Rodgers | 23 |
17th | Sam Mayer | 30 |
18th | Dean Thompson | 19 |
19th | Blaine Perkins | 26 |
20th | Jeb Burton | 20 |
21st | Harrison Burton | 16 |
22nd | Brennan Poole | 15 |
23rd | Anthony Alfredo | 19 |
24th | Corey Day | 13 |
25th | Kyle Sieg | 12 |
26th | Matt DiBenedetto | 11 |
27th | Ryan Ellis | 10 |
28th | Parker Retzlaff | 9 |
29th | Kris Wright | 8 |
30th | Jeremy Clements | 7 |
31st | Brad Perez | 6 |
32nd | Daniel Dye | 5 |
33rd | Connor Mosack | 0 |
34th | Christian Eckes | 3 |
35th | Ryan Sieg | 4 |
36th | Sage Karam | 1 |
37th | Alex Labbe | 5 |
38th | Jesse Love | 1 |
With a solid sixth-place finish on Saturday, Justin Allgaier maintains his points lead by 59 points over Mayer. Allgaier, Austin Hill, Zilisch, Jones, Sammy Smith, Love and Nick Sanchez remain the seven full-time drivers in the series to visit Victory Lane this season, putting them atop the playoff leaderboard. Jeb Burton currently holds a 16-point advantage on cousin Harrison Burton for the 12th and final playoff spot with seven regular-season races left.
What race is next in the NASCAR Xfinity Series?
The Xfinity Series shifts its focus to Dover Motor Speedway on Saturday, July 19 for the running of the BetRivers 200 (4:30 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Ryan Truex has won the last two races at the one-mile track in Delaware.