On the stat sheet it’s business as usual. Connor Zilisch is credited with the wins at Watkins Glen, Daytona, and Saturday’s race at Portland International Raceway; three in a row. But the reality is so much more interesting.
After a characteristically dominant performance at Watkins Glen, Zilisch was climbing out of his car to celebrate when he slipped on the window net and hit his head on the ground in a scary fall. That took him out of the Cup race the next day. He recovered enough two weeks later to start the race at Daytona but then had to step out and allow substitute driver Parker Kligerman to drive to victory.
Come Portland, Zilisch was back to his usual form. He earned the pole and swept the stages, looking unbeatable as the final stage began. However, a caution for three cars spinning separately on the same lap set up a decisive restart with seven laps to go.
Zilisch was the leader coming into the restart, but second-place Austin Hill got a big push from Carson Kvapil to take the top spot into Turn 1 as chaos enveloped the top five. William Sawalich came in too fast, sliding sideways as he tried to slow and hitting Zilisch and Justin Allgaier.
Zilisch turned left and missed the corner, cutting through the specified path through the barriers to give up the required time to avoid a penalty, rejoining the track without a penalty in second place.
Zilisch proceeded after Hill even as a tire rub produced a noticeable trail of smoke behind him. Just when it looked like Hill, who had been running second to Zilisch late at Watkins Glen until he was involved in a big wreck, might be able to hold on and inverse those positions, another caution came out as Australian Supercars driver Jack Perkins ended his second career NASCAR start in the wall from third.
That set up an Overtime restart. This time Zilisch got the jump and was able to clear Hill for the lead by the end of the frontstretch, but he drove deep into Turn 1 and once again turned left to take the access road. This time, as the field bunched up behind him and Sammy Smith was sent spinning from second, Zilisch emerged from his shortcut with the lead and held onto the win.
“I guess cut the track, I don’t know,” Zilisch joked about the key to his victory after using the roof hatch to get on top of the car this time and then gingerly stepping out the window and sarcastically moving the window net far out of the way.
“To come back two weeks after collarbone surgery, it hurt, but it hurt so good,” he added, holding up a shirt with that slogan emblazoned on it. “So yeah, it’s awesome, man. So proud of this [No.] 88 team, it’s been such a fun year, and, yeah, let’s go get ourselves a championship.”
He acknowledged that he’d put some thought into running the fastest line around the barrier obstacles on the access road in practice, anticipation that proved critical on race day.
“Yeah, it’s kind of funny, I ran it in practice and I was like, man, it’s not really that slow. So, as soon as I hit the brakes, I don’t know, I wheel-hopped, and I just committed to it as soon as I knew I wasn’t going to make the corner, and it worked out.” Zilisch described. “I wasn’t really planning on it, but last resort, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.”
The win gives Zilisch eight in total on the season, five more than any other driver, and provides more proof, if any were needed, that he is the driver to beat coming into the Playoffs.
Behind Zilisch, fellow rookie 18-year-old William Sawalich came out of the carnage for a career-best second place and crossed the line 1.572-seconds behind. Nick Sanchez and Christian Eckes finished third and fourth respectively.
Austin Hill came home fifth to round out the top five. He had the lead on the final restart but got a bad start, spinning his tires and then getting loose on the final turn from the restart zone into the frontstretch. That allowed Zilisch to get in front, as well as drivers in the rows behind who swarmed around Hill.
Sammy Smith looked to be in the best position of those drivers, clearing Hill fully before entering Turn 1, but in the chaos he ended up squeezed by Nick Sanchez and went around with no driver prepared to lift and all of the four drivers behind him missing the first turn, though to a lesser extent than Zilisch. Smith ended up 22nd.
Carson Kvapil, Jeb Burton, Austin Green, Blaine Perkins, and Jesse Love all earned top tens.
The Xfinity Series returns on Saturday, September 6th at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway in East St. Louis. There will be two points battles to follow on both sides of the Playoff picture.
First, at the elimination line, Jeb Burton entered 36 points back from cousin Harrison Burton in the final spot to make the Playoffs on points. With his seventh-place finish, Jeb closes that gap, but only slightly to 31 points since Harrison finished 12th at Portland. That is a large gap to make up in one race at Gateway.
Second, at the top, Connor Zilisch and Justin Allgaier are fighting for the regular season championship. Zilisch is having to do that on one fewer race: while Kligerman could earn points for him at Daytona since Zilisch started that race and stepped out of the car, he earned no points when Kyle Larson subbed for him at Texas earlier in the year following a back injury at Talladega since he did not start the race.
Even with the one fewer race, Zilisch leaves with a 20-point advantage over Allgaier with one race to go in the fight for the regular season title and the accompanying Playoff points that contribute towards taking home the overall championship.
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