In the midst of the weather, the star of Dale Jr. ‘Not impressed’ after the depreciation of Kyle Busch with Dover Triumph

A flood of rain at Dover Motor Speedway led NASCAR officials to throw the red flag on round 135 of 200, eventually awarded Connor Zilian the winner in a rain-made Xfinity race. With the race far beyond the half mark, Nascar officials called. The event would be considered official if it could not resume. And there was Zilian in P1, who sealed his fifth career Xfinity victory and fourth consecutive of the 2025 season with a margin of 1,483 seconds about Aric Almirola.

The driver no. 88 did not waste time in the drop of the green flag. Starting in third place thanks to a qualifying round of 23,753 seconds, he maintained the consistency from the start, led 77 laps and registered his fastest, hissing 23,953 seconds on round one in 150,294 mph. He never fell out of the top five all day, on average an ongoing position of only 2.09 and performed two clean pit stops to keep the order, even when the weather turned up. Zilian said post-race, “I wish we could have finished it, and it’s cool to achieve our fourth victory of the year so early in the season.”

The weather gods played spoil sport in the third phase, draping Dover with rain that set a caution on round 132 and a red flag. Only three laps later, with the track too wet to continue and fade daylight, Dover had no lights, and Nascar had no choice but to call the Race Official under the Red Flag. But it felt like a dramatic climax confirmed that the performance of Connor Zilian would not be undone.

This historical victory also saw Zilian dethroning one of the most prominent figures of Dover, Kyle Busch. Only 18 years and 11 months old, Zilian to win an Xfinity race in Dover, who replaces the long-standing record of Busch. It is a brand that has been made all the more impressive given the legendary history as the Monster Mile. Unbelievable, this was only the second Nascar race ever shortened by rain in the 55+ year history of Dover. The only others is the Race Series race of 2012, which ended under a similar flood and marked Team onion, the last truck victory of Todd Bodine.