19-year-old Connor Zilisch is really, really good. How good? Well, he defeated Shane van Gisbergen, already regarded as one of the best road racers in the history of NASCAR, by more than half a second to score the pole for Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series Mission 200 at The Glen at Watkins Glen International on Saturday morning.
Pre-Race Resources:
Starting Lineup: Mission 200 at The Glen
Practice Results: Mission 200 at The Glen
The driver of the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet improved upon his already impressive lap turned in practice earlier in the day by turning a 70.884-second (124.429 mph) lap time in the qualifying session. The blistering lap was enough to top van Gisbergen by a margin of 0.562 seconds, which secured Zilisch his sixth career NASCAR Xfinity Series pole position in just his 26th attempt.
While it was a dominant performance in qualifying, Zilisch knows he’s likely in for a bit of a closer challenge in Saturday’s race. Still, he’s proud of his No. 88 team.
“I feel like it’s going to come closer in the race, so I’m not going to get too ahead of myself. But clearly, we have a fast Registix Chevrolet,” Zilisch said in a post-qualifying interview on The CW. “I’m super proud of this entire team and the work they’ve put in lately. It takes a lot to beat the field by over half a second at one of these tracks, and I couldn’t do it without the car that’s underneath me. So, big thank you to JR Motorsports. Looking forward to the race later today, yeah, it’s going to be a good one.”
Taylor Gray was the best in class behind the two supreme road racing talents (Zilisch and van Gisbergen) as he locked in the third-fastest qualifying lap. The driver of the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota is still looking for the first win of what has been a really good rookie season in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
Sam Mayer, who won last weekend’s race at Iowa Speedway, will start Saturday’s race from the fourth position. Mayer, an eight-time NASCAR Xfinity Series race winner, won this event in 2023.
William Sawalich joined fellow rookies Zilisch and Gray inside the top five of the qualifying results as he turned the fifth-fastest lap of the session.
Sammy Smith, Nick Sanchez, Kaz Grala, Justin Allgaier, and Austin Hill rounded out the top-10 qualifiers for Saturday’s Mission 200 at The Glen.
