After a trying start to his NASCAR Cup Series rookie season, Connor Zilisch was able to get a confidence boost in Saturday night’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Suburban Propane 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway. Zilisch stayed out on a late-race caution on older tires, while Kyle Larson, the race’s dominant driver, pitted for fresh tires.
Over the final laps of the race, Zilisch was able to stave off challenges from Brent Crews, who was also on older tires, and Larson, to pick up the victory.
Race Results: Suburban Propane 300 at Bristol
“Yeah, man, that was awesome. It’s been a tough past few weeks for me in the Cup Series. It feels good to come back down here into the O’Reilly Series and remember that I can still do it,” Zilisch said. “It’s tough, you finish in the back every week, and you forget who you are.”
Larson looked like he still had a great shot at the victory, as he worked past Crews in the closing laps, but as he was beginning to apply pressure to Zilisch, Larson’s car got loose and slipped out of the groove, which handed the win on a silver platter to Zilisch.
Zilisch was happy about the pit strategy call by his crew chief, the legendary Rodney Childers.
“This feels good. We played a strategy. Rodney made a great call to keep us out,” Zilisch explained. “The tires weren’t wearing much all night, and we were able to get our Roto-Rooter Chevrolet in the track position that it needed to go out and win the race.”
It’s the first-ever NASCAR O’Reilly Series win for Childers as a crew chief, and for the 19-year-old driver, who was piloting the No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet on Saturday night, this marks the 12th win of his 39-race NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series career.
While it was a bitter defeat for Larson, who led a race-high 230 laps, he would hang on to finish runner-up, as he crossed the finish line 0.703 seconds behind Zilisch. Larson wasn’t too bent out of shape about losing the lead due to the pit call that his crew chief, Mardy Lindley, made, because he felt that if they chose to stay out, everyone else would have pitted.
“Yeah, I mean, I don’t know. When we run as long as we did, it’s hard to stay out. And I was split, you know, I’m sure he was as well. And yeah, if I stay out, who knows how many people pit behind me,” Larson said. “Everybody might pit and then it looks potentially different, worse than second, potentially.”
Crews, 18, was able to hang on for an impressive third-place run.
Justin Allgaier, the series points leader, collected the $100,000 Dash 4 Cash bonus money with a fourth-place finish. With the latest solid run for Allgaier, he extended his points lead to 130 markers over Sheldon Creed, who finished sixth on Saturday night.
The four drivers eligible for the $100,000 Dash 4 Cash prize at Kansas Speedway next weekend are Allgaier, Creed, Crews, and Carson Kvapil, who rounded out the top-five finishers in the race.
With 15 races remaining until the start of the Chase for the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series championship, Taylor Gray holds the final slot inside the 12-driver Chase Grid. Gray holds a 28-point advantage over Ryan Sieg for the final spot.
