AVONDALE, Ariz. — Jesse Love turned in the ultimate season bookend, winning the opening race of the NASCAR Xfinity Series 2025 schedule at Daytona International Speedway, then closing it out with the biggest win of his young career to claim the NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship Saturday night at Phoenix Raceway.
The 20-year-old Californian had to beat his best friend, the season‘s 10-race winner Connor Zilisch, to claim the career-changing victory and title. Love ultimately passed the JR Motorsports driver Zilisch for the lead with 24 laps to go at the desert 1-miler and then had to hold off veteran Aric Almirola after the Joe Gibbs Racing driver also got around Zilisch with eight laps remaining.
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The emotions were unmistakable as Love climbed out of his No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, the smoke still rising behind on track from the celebratory donuts he performed in victory. He immediately gave his father Duke a huge, lingering embrace — the sentiment between the two palpable and unmistakable. Love finished the season with two wins, nine top fives, 22 top 10s and four poles.
“I just feel so clean and relieved,” said Love, whose margin of victory was 0.861 seconds. “It‘s been a tough year for me, and I‘ve put so much work into it, and people like my dad and [driver coach] Scott Speed and my whole No. 2 team worked just as hard for my dream as I have for my own.
“It really hasn‘t set in yet. All these emotions, it doesn‘t feel real, doesn‘t feel real at all,” Love said, referring to the close contest with Zilisch. “He‘s my best friend in the whole world, but not when we‘re racing each other. We race each other hard but fair. … He ran a really great race tonight, but my car was just better tonight.”
MORE: Read about Love’s championship season
Almirola was almost as emotional in celebrating the Owner’s Championship for Joe Gibbs Racing. The former full-time NASCAR Cup Series driver has stayed in the sport, racing part-time for JGR and officially earning a position in the owner‘s championship with a victory at Las Vegas in the playoffs.
Almirola’s 17 races in the JGR No. 19 Toyota was most among the six drivers who combined to drive it this season. Almirola earned all three wins for the car and scored 11 top-10 finishes.
“It is a team effort and I‘m just so thankful for Coach [Gibbs] and the Gibbs family,” said Almirola, a three-time winner in a 12-year full-time career in the NASCAR Cup Series that ended in 2023.
“This is really, really great. I‘ve never won a championship. This is my first championship, and it isn‘t about me, but I was a part of it and so proud of our organization and everyone who supports us.”
“I am so grateful to be a part of that and deliver that to Joe Gibbs Racing.”
Zilisch‘s third-place finish and the dominating season he turned in this season in the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet were enough to earn Rookie of the Year honors, but that was of little consolation in the immediate moments after the checkered flag.
“Nothing to hang our heads about,” said Zilisch, who became the most successful rookie in series history with a record 18 consecutive top-five finishes, 23 top-10 and 20 top-five finishes as part of his 10-trophy effort. “We gave it our all today, and it doesn‘t take away from anything we did this year. We had a hell of a year. This is just going to sting a little bit.”
“I left my heart out on the track.”
As for his best friend Love, Zilisch was kind even in the heartbreak, “I‘m very happy for him, he works hard at it, but I came here to win, and it still doesn‘t make it any better.”
The other two of the four championship-eligible drivers, Zilisch‘s JR Motorsports teammates Justin Allgaier and Carson Kvapil, finished fifth and 13th, respectively. The defending series champion Allgaier won a stage and led a race-best 83 of the 200 laps — one of six leaders on the evening — but was never able to reclaim the lead after losing it during a pit stop with 50 laps remaining.
“[Love] did all the right things,” Allgaier said. “They rose to the occasion, and we didn‘t.”
RELATED: Hear from Zilisch | More from Allgaier
Pole-winner Brandon Jones, who drives the No. 20 JGR Toyota, finished fourth, followed by Allgaier. Sammy Smith finished sixth, Taylor Gray, who won the race‘s first stage, finished seventh in another JGR Toyota, followed by Haas Factory Team driver Sheldon Creed, Love‘s RCR teammate Austin Hill and JGR‘s Justin Bonsignore.
Saturday’s race was the final event under the Xfinity title sponsorship banner, capping an 11-year run as the series will be renamed the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series beginning next season.
The 2026 O’Reilly Series kicks off Saturday, Feb. 14, at Daytona International Speedway. All events next season will continue to air on The CW.
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