This weekend, the NASCAR Xfinity Collection heads to Phoenix to crown a champion among the many closing 4 drivers left within the Playoffs. In 2025, the backwards and forwards has principally been between Connor Zilisch and Justin Allgaier. Jesse Love and Carson Kvapil are hoping to tug off an upset of the 2 favorites.
Allgaier is the reigning champion. Zilisch has rewritten the file books in his rookie season. He has someway exceeded the lofty expectations positioned on him and, with 10 wins, is trying to end the job.
Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic have made their championship picks for the NASCAR Xfinity Collection. The drivers are very proficient and any of them might pull it off, however who’s more than likely to win the championship?
“Nicely, I’m going to be choosing Justin Allgaier. … I simply assume Phoenix there and clearly his championship expertise,” Gluck mentioned on The Teardown earlier this week. “Look, I imply, it’s three JRM automobiles, so.”
It appears that evidently the 2 co-hosts are on the identical web page for probably the most half. Regardless of the distinction in wins, Allgaier has been simply pretty much as good as Zilisch this NASCAR season.
“The wins discrepancy is the wins. That’s 10 to three for wins,” Bianchi mentioned. “However Allgaier is within the ballpark for top-fives for top-10s. He’s solely led 13 fewer laps this 12 months than Zilisch. … Zilisch is phenomenal, however Allgaier’s been actually, actually good this 12 months. Actually, actually good. And he’s bought plenty of confidence there, and it’s Phoenix, proper? So, it’s a factor. And the one factor that I believe it’s essential to watch out of, and I talked about Heim sustaining management of the race.
“We noticed a bit little bit of this with Zilisch on this race on Saturday, and actually right here within the Spring as effectively. He will get again in visitors a bit bit, issues can occur, and you may utterly turn into a sufferer of issues in your environment, and that’s harmful. So, we’ll see how this performs out. I assume I’ve kinda been on the Allgaier’s gonna win it, so I’m going to go together with you, and I agree with you. However I believe it’s going to be a showdown between these two JRM guys.”
The 2 NASCAR insiders appear to imagine that Allgaier is the one to beat. You’ll be able to’t actually argue that when Zilisch has solely raced at Phoenix twice in an Xfinity automobile. Final season, he was P4 within the championship finale. Earlier this season, he was P16.
Can Connor Zilisch end up his historic season with the NASCAR Xfinity Collection title? Or are we about to see a back-to-back champion in Justin Allgaier?
