XFINITY: Parker Kligerman Secures Connor Zilisch's Seventh Win of 2025

We've reached the point in Connor Zilisch's dominance in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, where he can now win races without even being behind the wheel. On Friday night, in the Wawa 250 Powered by Coca-Cola at Daytona International Speedway, Zilisch relinquished the wheel of the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet to Parker Kligerman on the first caution of the race.

Race Results:

Wawa 250 Powered by Coca-Cola at Daytona

Kligerman says that he and Zilisch practiced switching in and out of the car throughout the week in order to pull off the swap as quick as possible. The fastest they ever pulled it off? Friday night at Daytona.

"These cars aren't meant to do it, but everybody did a great job," Kligerman, who has competed in sportscar endurance races where drivers commonly swap out mid-race. "And we were able to do it really quickly, the quickest we did it all week."

Once he got behind the wheel, Kligerman didn't care who got the credit for the win, he simply wanted to bring the car home atop the scoring pylon for the young phenom racer.

"No, I was thinking of you the whole time," Kligerman told Zilisch in their joint post-race press conference. "I cannot let this guy down. I was saying all week, I'll be a footnote in this guy's 19 Cup championships he has ahead of him."

Zilisch, who is two weeks removed from breaking his collarbone in a fall in Watkins Glen International's victory lane following his sixth win of the season, didn't want to chance further injury to his surgically repaired collarbone by competing for the duration of Friday night's race.

"It's doing much better," Zilisch said of his injured collarbone. "It's been 10 days since surgery, and I have full range of motion. It's a little tight, but no pain. So, hopefully, next weekend we'll return to normal."

As the race ended under caution in overtime on Lap 104, Kligerman was leading the furious pack of cars as Austin Hill, and a slew of race cars went crashing behind him.

Per NASCAR rules, the driver, who starts the race is the one who gets credit if the relief driver scores the win. So, while Kligerman finally got his much-anticipated first career NASCAR Xfinity Series win, the official statistics will always show this as a win for the 19-year-old Zilisch.

"I was making the joke all week, and I even saw people on Reddit [say it], and my family said it to me, 'It's going to be such a you thing to win it, and not have any credit for it and not be in the record books.' And I was like, 'Yep, that'll be me. We're going to win, just watch.' And sure enough, here we are," Kligerman laughed. "But it's super cool, like I said, to be associated with Connor."

As the field was frozen, which awarded the victory to the No. 88 JR Motorsports team, Sammy Smith was narrowly ahead of Justin Allgaier to take the runner-up spot in what turned out to be a 1-2-3 finish for JR Motorsports.

While Zilisch would have preferred to be behind the wheel of the No. 88 car for the full event, he was happy that Kligerman was able to avenge his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series win at Daytona in February, which was stripped away due to a post-race disqualification.

"I didn't hope to have to do this, and I wish I didn't have to go through this, but if there was anyone that I wanted to drive this car today, Parker was certainly one of the top picks. Yeah, I feel like this place owed him a win, and it was really cool," Zilisch said. "I've never really been in that position other than maybe multi-class racing or when Kyle [Larson] ran my car at Texas. But I feel like Kyle was expected to win, so I wasn't as excited as I was today."

Jesse Love would finish fourth behind the wheel of the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, and Sam Mayer rebounded from late-race adversity to nab a top-five finish in fifth.

Brandon Jones, Rookie of the Year contender Dean Thompson, Garrett Smithey, Brennan Poole, and Carson Kvapil rounded out the top-10 finishers in Friday night's race at the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway.

Hill, who was running around fifth or sixth on the backstretch of the final lap, would end up finishing 25th after the wild last-lap melee. Leland Honeyman, likewise, saw a potential top-five run come to a crashing halt with a 26th-place finish.

Harrison Burton, the final driver on the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoff Grid heading into the day found trouble early, and often. When the race started, the driver of the No. 25 AM Racing Ford had radio issues. Then, he was spun by Matt DiBenedetto on Lap 12, which led to shrapnel from the crush panels on his race car flying into the cockpit of his car, and it would fly into his back.

Additionally, Burton would suffer from fiberglass in his eyes, and he would be collected in the final two crashes of the night. Through it all, he still salvaged a 16th-place finish.

With Jeb Burton and Ryan Sieg, his two prime competitors for the final Playoff slot, finding trouble as well, Harrison Burton was actually able to hold serve in the point standings. His cousin, Jeb, would finish the night in 20th-place, and Sieg would end up 31st after a hard crash from the front of the field, which set up the overtime finish.

There is one race left in the NASCAR Xfinity Series regular season, which will conclude at Portland International Raceway. With one race remaining, Harrison Burton holds a 36-point lead over Jeb Burton, and a 56-point advantage over Sieg.

Zilisch, who was credited with the race win, came into the race with a seven-point lead over his teammate Justin Allgaier for the regular-season championship. Coming out of the race, Allgaier actually will hold a three-point lead over Zilisch heading into Portland by virtue of a third-place finish coupled with a Stage Win.

Next up for the NASCAR Xfinity Series is the Pacific Office Automation 147 at Portland International Raceway on Saturday, August 30. That race will be televised on The CW, and the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will provide the radio broadcast of the event.

*This story will be updated*

Race Results:

Recommended Articles