2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series Awards

With the 2025 season recently in the rearview mirror, its time to hand out the ever-important Frontstretch hardware for the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

A chaotic season that at times featured NASCAR’s most consistent racing product, there were names both new and old rising to the occasion while equally as many befuddling sequences took shape.

As Connor Zilisch‘s domination came to rest, he capped his season with 10 wins, 20 top fives and 23 top 10s. Despite all that, he didn’t come away with the championship trophy.

Jesse Love, who survived Martinsville Speedway to make the Championship 4 after a miserable affair, put together the race of his life exactly when he needed it. Love passed his best friend with just under 25 laps remaining at Phoenix Raceway in the season finale and set sail from there en route to becoming just the fifth driver in series history to win the title at age 20 or younger.

Only one of those drivers wins one of our awards this year. In fact, he won two.

Read all of Frontstretch‘s content looking back on 2025 here

Driver of the Year: Connor Zilisch

It couldn’t be anyone else. The way Zilisch dominated NASCAR’s second-tier series was rare. Despite injuries during the season, the rookie won the regular-season championship in addition to the aforementioned torrid numbers.

At one point in the season, Zilisch put together 18 straight top-five finishes, a streak that started in May at Charlotte Motor Speedway and went all the way through Las Vegas Motor Speedway in October, an unprecedented level of execution for the JR Motorsports rookie (that’s right, rookie; more on that shortly).

Zilisch easily worked his way into the Championship 4 at Phoenix but didn’t have the best car as he finished third in the race, ending as the runner-up in the driver and owner championships.

Despite the loss, Zilisch has absolutely nothing to be ashamed about considering his masterful output in 2025. He may not have an Xfinity championship to his name, but everyone knows about how formidable he is behind the wheel and why he’s getting the callup to Trackhouse Racing next season in the NASCAR Cup Series.

Rookie of the Year: Connor Zilisch

That’s right: he was a rookie, too.

A pair of rookies won their first career races this year, with Nick Sanchez taking the victory at EchoPark Speedway and Taylor Gray getting over the hump at Martinsville. Gray in particular had a solid finish to the year, winning the opening stage at Phoenix after getting his grandfather clock.

Before concussion-like symptoms cut his season short, William Sawalich was putting together a good end to his rookie year. At one point, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver was outside the top 20 in points with a rough learning curve. Starting at Sonoma Raceway, Sawalich put together six top 10s in an eight-race stretch, including two runner-up finishes where he had chances to put himself in the playoffs.

Race of the Year: Watkins Glen International

So much happened in NASCAR’s yearly trek to New York.

Zilisch and Shane van Gisbergen looked like they were going to have a heavyweight bout much like their affair at Sonoma, which was a strong contender for this award.

Zilisch and van Gisbergen raced so hard that they made contact, with the latter taking a hard hit that ended his day.

Meanwhile, Austin Hill had returned from his one-race suspension after wrecking Aric Almirola at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and proceeded to stun lock the field after wrecking Michael McDowell.

The field blew apart down the straightaway, with several contenders getting taken out and piles of carnage taking shape in the back.

Zilisch survived said complete chaos at the end of the race en route to another road-course win. He then experienced what becomes the most viral moment in NASCAR this season, falling off the door gap in his car and breaking his collarbone — all while the cameras rolled.

Jaw-Dropping Sequence of the Year: Austin Hill’s Summer Sunburn

Hill certainly had a summer where he made no friends. After declaring that he wanted to be a driving force for leadership among the Xfinity garage alongside Justin Allgaier, Hill proceeded to wreck Almirola at Indianapolis, sending him hard into the outside wall — a move NASCAR deemed intentional.

Hill was held several laps on pit road for reckless driving, to which he continued to retort with expletives toward NASCAR about the decision. The series later suspended the veteran for Iowa Speedway after taking stock of the situation, a decision team owner Richard Childress did not support.

Here is what Richard Childress said after the race about #NASCAR penalizing Austin Hill 5 laps for reckless driving for incident with Aric Almirola in the Xfinity race at Indy. pic.twitter.com/vJfiU1DXaZ

— Dustin Long (@dustinlong) July 26, 2025

Hill returned at Watkins Glen, where he pulled off an unintentional but rash decision against McDowell.

In a year when the Xfinity Series had tons of highs, Austin Hill’s summer stretch left a sour taste in many people’s mouths, resulting in a loss of 21 playoff points, the exact deficit he was eliminated by during the playoffs.

Most Valuable Production: The CW

The MVP of the Xfinity season has to go its new broadcast partner, he CW. The network has taken coverage of the series with passion and respec, and fleshed out lots of good stories across the grid in its inaugural season.

The broadcasters — both in the full-time booth of Adam Alexander, Jamie McMurray and Parker Kligerman, along with the weekly driver analysts — were all knowledgeable and willing to dig deep for narratives.

The CW also was intentional about adding pre- and post-race coverage for most events, letting reporters Kim Coon, Dillon Welch and Carla Metts flex their muscle as we heard thoughts and analysis from a rotating cast of members each week.

The CW just announced Xfinity Series ratings were up 10% over last year and averaged more than one million viewers per race (including the finale, which also topped a million). Most-watched Xfinity season in four years. https://t.co/Vu8Z3O8xk3

— Jeff Gluck (@jeff_gluck) November 5, 2025

Both The CW and NASCAR Productions did an admirable job in taking the coverage seriously, and viewers were better for it. On the other hand, there is still room for improvement. If The CW can bump up the amount of in-person coverage at the races for broadcasters, it’ll add another element to an already strong telecast. Additionally, if it can streamline its app to be synced with events, namely the races being watchable live on the app, that would be another key addition to a strong network.

The CW has a lot going for it. It is allowing NASCAR fans to not have to play hot potato with their TV remotes and is providing both informed yet passionate coverage of the series’ underrated racing product on cable.

It’ll have to continue that momentum when the newly named NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series gets ready to roll in 2026.

Thomas is in his first year covering NASCAR at Frontstretch. A Bay Area NASCAR fan for over 15+ years, he found his love for the sport through Jeff Gordon.

Thomas has enjoyed several trips to Sonoma Raceway in his time and currently covers college football in the Bay Area, also writing about the California Golden Bears.