NASCAR Xfinity: Jesse Love wins, claims title at Phoenix

By AMANDA VINCENT

Jesse Love claimed the 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series championship by winning the season-finale Saturday at Phoenix Raceway. It was Love’s second win of the season and his third-career win.

“I feel so clean, you know, relieved” Love said. “It’s been a tough year for me. I’ve just put so much work into it. People like my dad and Scott Speed and the whole No. 2 team have worked just as hard for my dream as I have for my own.”

Love passed fellow-championship contender and season wins leader Connor Zilisch on lap 176 of the 200-lap race. Zilisch finished third at Phoenix, second in the championship battle after a 10-win rookie season.

“You work all year long and you bust your ass for 33 weeks,” Zilisch said. “I feel like we did the best job we could all year long, and we just didn’t have it today. I’m so proud of this team. We have nothing to hang our heads about, but this one is gonna sting.” 

Love’s No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet wasn’t in contention for the owners’ championship. The No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing team won the owners’ title after Aric Almirola drove the No. 19 to a second-place finish Saturday.

Almirola passed Zilisch for position on lap 192.

Brandon Jones finished fourth to give JGR two cars inside the top-five at the checkered flag. A third candidate for the drivers’ title, 2024 champ and Zilisch’s JR Motorsports teammate Justin Allgaier, rounded out the top-five after leading a race-high 83 laps.

JRM driver Carson Kvapil was the fourth title contender with a 13th-place race finish at Phoenix.

Allgaier was leading when the yellow flag waved on lap 152. Ryan Sieg, substituting for the suspended Sam Mayer, crashed after contact from Christian Eckes.

Allgaier’s team had trouble changing the right-rear tire, so he was fourth off pit road. Love and Zilisch were the first two out of the pits, and Zilisch took the lead on the restart.

Taylor Gray won the first 45-lap stage with Sheldon Creed in second. Allgaier and Zilisch were the two highest-running championship contenders in third and fourth.

Gray started the race in the second position and took the lead from Joe Gibbs Racing teammate and pole sitter Jones on lap 12.

Allgaier won the second 45-lap stage at lap 90 with Zilisch in second.

Zilisch was second to Gray off pit road after the opening stage, and Zilisch took the lead on the restart. Allgaier, then, got by Gray for second on lap 60 and took the lead from his teammate on lap 63.

Almirola was third at stage-end after passing Sheldon Creed for the position on lap 79.

Love beat Allgaier off pit road after stage two to assume the lead. Zilisch, meanwhile, was back to seventh.

Allgaier retook the lead from Love on the restart near the halfway point of the race.

Three JRM drivers finished in the top-10 in the Phoenix race with Sammy Smith in sixth. Gray finished seventh, Creed eighth and Love’s RCR teammate Austin Hill in ninth.

Justin Bonsignore, in a substitution role for the injured William Sawalich, finished 10th, joining teammates Almirola, Jones and Gray in putting four cars inside the top-10.

The race included only two cautions for on-track incidents. The first came on lap 113 for Leland Honeyman.