AVONDALE, Ariz. – Jesse Love outran three championship-contending JR Motorsports teams to win at Phoenix Raceway and secure the 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship.

Love started the race in sixth, and throughout the evening, he methodically made his way to the front of the field. With 25 laps to go, Love passed by his best friend, Connor Zilisch to pull off the eventual race-winning move. Heading into the weekend, Zilisch, who had 10 wins on the season was the favorite; however, it was the Richard Childress Racing No. 2 Whelen Chevrolet team that had the speed at the end of the race.

“Yeah, he’s my best friend in the whole world, but not when we’re racing each other,” Love said. “We race each other hard, but fair. Yeah, my I had to take it through. I knew he was going to put in my door. I knew I had to throttle up and just get my nose ahead. He was running a really good race. My car was just better tonight and allowed me to roll off the center and get off the corner better.

“Hats off to the 88 team and Connor for all they’ve done this year. Tonight, I can’t even believe it, you know?”

The 2025 title marks the first NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship for Love, who has been competing full-time in the series for two years. Love ended the season with two wins, nine top-five and 22 top-10 finishes. He also led 297 laps throughout the season as well.

“I just feel so clean, relieved,” Love said. “It’s been a tough year for me. Man, I’ve just put so much work into it. People like my dad and Scott Speed, my whole 2 team, have worked just as hard for my dream as I have for my own.

“Man, thank you to Whelen. For one last time this car was fast as Xfinity Mobile. It really hasn’t set in yet. I just tried to tune out all the emotion. It doesn’t feel real at all (smiling).”

Aric Almirola broke up the Championship battle as he claimed second-place on Saturday night.

As for Zilisch, he crossed the finish line in third and will finish second in the series standings. The young driver was emotional spent after the checkered flag, but he capped off the season with the most wins of the year. He also earned 20 to-five and 23 top-10 finishes.

“Yeah, I mean, I came into the weekend, I told my entire team we got to give it our 100% this week,” Zilisch said. “As long as we walk out of this place knowing we did that, I’ll be proud of us. We did that today, and we fought all day long, threw everything we had at it. Unfortunately our WeatherTech Chevrolet, we just didn’t quite have what we needed.

“It doesn’t take away from anything we’ve done this year. Our car has been as fast as Xfinity Mobile all year long. I’m so proud of these guys. Yeah, I guess the lights were too bright.”

Brandon Jones finished third, and NASCAR Playoffs contender, Justin Allgaier finished fourth. Allgaier finished out the night with a race high of 83 laps led. Who entered the night as the defending series champion, but this year, he’ll finish third in the standings.

“That last pit stop there, we lost a little bit of track position,” Allgaier said. “That last set of tires was really, really loose. I think that’s the hardest part, we made a really good adjustment in the first pit stop.

“I wanted to send Jim Pohlman off with another championship. He’s been an amazing part of this journey, got me my championship last year. Just felt like we did all the right things tonight and we still came out of here really short.”

Sammy Smith rounded out the top-five, followed by Taylor Gray, Sheldon Creed, Austin Hill, and Justin Bonsignore.

Championship 4 contender, Carson Kvapil finished 13^th.

Gray won Stage 1, and Allgaier won Stage 2.

The caution came out on four occasions for 31 laps.

The 2026 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series season will kickoff at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday, Feb. 14 with the United Rentals 300.

Photo Credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images