There was no doubt who the best driver was in this past Saturday’ NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Portland International Speedway. It was Connor Zilisch, who led 70-of-78 laps from the pole and cruised to his eighth victory of the 2025 season.
The events off the final restart in overtime which led to Zilisch taking the checkered flag came into question, however. Zilisch had the lead off the final restart, but he appeared to lock up his brakes heading into Turn 1. He quicky turned left and went through the A-frame penalty area in Turn 1 once it became clear he was going to miss the corner. Zilisch came out well ahead of the field, which stacked up and wrecked in Turn 1.
NASCAR did not issue a penalty to Zilisch. Denny Hamlin found some controversy in Zilisch’s win, explaining where the uproar came from.
“It was very controversial in the way he won it,” Hamlin said on Monday’s Actions Detrimental podcast. “… I guess the uproar is that they feel he didn’t even attempt to make the first corner. He had it in his mind the entire time that I’m just going to blow this, run that chicane and see where I net out. That does two things for him. One, it’s really not that big of a time loss. Two, it would be well, now I’m gonna avoid the corner where the incidents happen the most often. You take yourself out of the opportunity of getting wrecked.”
Connor Zilisch won again on a road course, what’s new?
Zilisch was the rightful winner based on how the race played out. Hamlin acknowledged that but called out NASCAR for “poor planning” when it came to the chicane.
“Is there any doubt that the best car won? No. Or the best driver won? No. That’s just not good sport. Not on Connor’s part, I’m talking about on the sport. You gotta do better than that,” Hamlin said. “These chicanes have been exposed for a few years now, and you haven’t figured out a way to actually make them penalize you when you miss the track? Just poor planning. Poor lots of stuff.”
Whether an intentional move or not, Zilisch got away with it. Just two weeks removed from collarbone surgery, he returned to Victory Lane and increased his regular season points lead over JR Motorsports teammate Justin Allgaier.
“It’s kind of funny, I ran it in practice, and I was like, ‘it’s not even that slow,’” Zilisch said of his actions in Turn 1. “As soon as I hit the brakes, I wheel-hopped, but kind of committed to it as soon as I realized I wasn’t going to make the corner. And it worked out. I wasn’t really planning on it, but last resort, you’ve gotta do what you gotta do.”
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