How Connor Zilisch’s Record-Breaking NASCAR Xfinity Season Became “Hard to Deal With” for Jesse Love

Jesse Love created history by winning the 2025 Xfinity Series championship and has firmly planted himself as one of NASCAR’s top upcoming stars. What makes the achievement even more interesting is that he had to leapfrog his close friend, Connor Zilisch, to claim the title.

Zilisch was easily the most dominant driver of the year. He secured 10 wins and went 18 consecutive races finishing inside the top-5. Nearly everyone who followed the sport had him as their favorite to win the championship till the very end. But on the day of judgment, he failed to be the best man on the field, and Love took that spot with glee. There is a deeper meaning to all this.

Just like any other young driver, Love has the deep desire to be the hottest prospect in the show. And watching Zilisch get all the attention for the major part of the year hadn’t sat well with him. He said during a press conference in Phoenix last month, “It’s been really hard this year. At the end of the day, I want to walk in the room and feel like THE man.”

“For quite a while, once I had my breakout ARCA season, I was the hottest thing for the most part with the exception of probably Corey [Heim]. Then Connor kind of took that away from me. It’s been really tough, hard to deal with that with just the way that your friends look at you, the way the fans look at you. It’s all tough. It was a hard pill for me to swallow.”

He did not like losing to Zilisch one bit. But instead of focusing that energy on something unproductive, he used it to motivate himself and better his craft. This came with the key understanding that he could only control how he raced and not how his friend did. Safe to say, this mindset worked wonders in the end. By comparison, he had only two wins and nine top-5 finishes.

But the fact that Love was able to still end up as the champion speaks volumes about his caliber. In 2025, his biggest goal was to beat Zilisch. Such was the benchmark that the JR Motorsports alumni set. But next season, he won’t have to deal with him anymore. Zilisch will be moving to the Cup Series to drive for Trackhouse Racing. Love, meanwhile, will spend another year with his current setup.

He said, “I’m not going to have Connor to compare myself to next year. I’m going to have to change that mindset pretty quick.” Perhaps, with that new mindset, there will come another championship and a seat at the Cup Series table for 2027.