Connor Zilisch isn’t just winning races anymore — he’s hoarding them like a doomsday prepper with canned beans. On Saturday at the Charlotte Roval, the rookie collected his 10th win of the season, leading 61 laps, building leads that stretched into the “should we check his car for a jet engine?” range, and surviving an overtime finish that would’ve rattled just about anyone else. With the win, Zilisch became the first Xfinity rookie to hit double digits in a single season.
“It’s so much fun getting to race in my hometown,” Zilisch said. “The JR Motorsports cars were so fast this weekend… It feels really good to get 10. Double digits is pretty awesome for my first year in the series.”
Behind him, the real story was a playoff knife fight where four drivers were busy trying not to get booted from the Round of 12. Zilisch, meanwhile, was busy being Zilisch. He was fastest in practice, took pole, then strolled off in Stage 1 as if the field had brought U-Hauls instead of race cars. Harrison Burton’s playoff hopes went up in smoke when his Ford decided that fuel pressure was optional equipment, stalling out after teasing trouble all weekend.
That brought out the first caution, and when everyone piled into pit road and set up a dash to finish Stage 1. Justin Allgaier slipped past Zilisch coming out of the pits and led to the green; a lead that lasted about as long as a TikTok video. By Turn 7, Zilisch was back in front and cruising to a Stage 1 win by 1.6 seconds.
Stage 2 started with Zilisch leading again until he ducked into the pits just before the stage ended, giving up a playoff point like he had too many lying around. Jesse Love inherited the lead and snatched the stage win, while Zilisch settled for 10th. Of course, his pit strategy meant he was perfectly positioned for the final stage, and by Lap 48 he was three seconds clear and growing.
Austin Hill’s day was a Greek tragedy by comparison — down a cylinder, losing power, and watching his playoff hopes slip under the cutoff line. By the time Zilisch was six seconds ahead with 10 to go, Hill was staring elimination in the face.
Then chaos did what chaos does best. Sammy Smith, below the cutline and running out of luck, pitted for a tire that looked ready to grenade with 4 laps to go. At almost the same moment, Sage Karem shredded one of his own and parked it in a heap. Just like that, Zilisch’s 10-second cushion was vaporized, and NASCAR lined up an overtime finish.
On the restart, Austin Green gave Zilisch one serious shove into Turn 1, but the rookie held firm. Behind him, Alex Labbé and Brennan Poole tangled and left a trail of fluids, forcing NASCAR to throw the yellow and freeze the field with Zilisch out front.
Green had to settle for second, Smith’s last-gasp gamble turned into a third-place finish, and the final playoff spot turned into courtroom drama. Taylor Gray briefly had the edge over Jesse Love, which would’ve knocked Smith out, but NASCAR reviewed the tapes and dinged Gray for passing under caution. That handed the spot to Smith by a single point.
“I’m proud of everyone at JRM and everyone on my team,” Smith said. (Crew chief) Phillip Bell made a great call to pit, obviously. It was a Hail Mary move, and it worked.
“I’m just excited to go try to race for a championship and put ourselves in position to make the final four.”
Gray could only look back on what could have been.
“Just obviously bummed out,” Gray said. “We don’t get to go racing for a championship at the end of the year. Just weren’t good enough. We weren’t good enough today.
“We didn’t have a good Bristol, and we shouldn’t have to even be in this spot. We are, though, and we are going to take our loss and move on to the next four and try to win us a couple of races.”
When the dust cleared, Zilisch had another trophy, Smith advanced on a technicality, and Gray joined Nick Sanchez, Austin Hill, and Harrison Burton on the playoff scrap heap.
Zilisch now heads into the next round not just seeded first, but sitting on a 52–point cushion over teammate and defending champ Justin Allgaier. That’s not a lead, that’s a hammock. He could practically skip an entire race, grab a hot dog in the grandstands, and still come back to find himself on top of the standings.
“Now we’ve got to go win the championship,” Zilisch said — as if he hasn’t been doing just that every Saturday since the season started.
Greg was a writer for DriveTribe supporting Amazon's The Grand Tour and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, and a Masters degree in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek and a regular contributor to Forbes.