After obliterating Friday’s ARCA Menards Series field at Watkins Glen International, Connor Zilisch shows absolutely zero signs of slowing down.
The 18-year-old driver strapped into a NASCAR Xfinity Series vehicle for the first time Saturday at the 2.45-mile road course, and in his first competitive laps, topped the practice charts.
Qualifying was essentially a mirror image of that, with Zilisch winning the pole for Saturday’s Mission 200 at Watkins Glen International, driving the No. 88 Carolina Carports Chevrolet for JR Motorsports.
Zilisch posted a blazing time of 71.028 seconds (124.176mph) in the second and final round of qualifying, scoring his first pole in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, in his first start.
The Mooresville, North Carolina native becomes the 14th driver in NASCAR Xfinity Series history to win the pole in his series debut, and the first since Jesse Love captured the pole at Daytona International Speedway in February.
“This team, can’t say enough about everybody, Andrew Overstreet my crew chief, and everyone who works at JR Motorsports this car is driving itself and made my job easy,” said Connor Zilisch. “So, just thankful to be in this position with this team and have the opportunities to race these fast cars.”
This particular triumph means the Trackhouse Racing development driver will forever have his name etched into the history books, as the first driver in NASCAR history to win the pole on debut in multiple series. Zilisch debuted in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series earlier this year at Circuit of The Americas (COTA) and sat on the pole for Spire Motorsports.
“Hopefully, later today in the race I won’t miss turn one and we can have a clean race and be there at the end, but it’s a long race, so I just got to take my time and learn as we go, there’s a lot of great guys around me with a lot of talent, so definitely a lot to learn in the race later today, but starting off the day on a good note.”
Ty Gibbs, a NASCAR Cup Series regular, will start alongside Zilisch to start Saturday’s 200-mile contest, driving the No. 19 Toyota GR Supra for Joe Gibbs Racing. AJ Allmendinger, the winningest driver on road courses in the Xfinity Series, will start from third.
STARTING LINEUP: 2024 NXS Mission 200 at Watkins Glen
Justin Allgaier and Sam Mayer, teammates of Zilisch’s from the JR Motorsports stable, will round out the top five in fourth and fifth place. Chandler Smith, William Byron, Aric Almirola, Sheldon Creed, and Austin Hill completed the top-10.
Shane van Gisbergen, who has won three of the four road course events this season in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, surprisingly failed to advance to the final round of qualifying and will start Saturday’s race from the 13th position.
Other notables starting outside the top-10 include Jesse Love (11th), Riley Herbst (12th), Ryan Sieg (13th), Cole Custer (15th), Brandon Jones (16th), Sammy Smith (17th), Parker Kligerman (19th), Ross Chastain (21st), and Joey Logano (33rd).
Josh Williams and Ed Jones failed to post a qualifying time in Saturday’s session, relegating them to the 37th and 38th-place starting spots.
With 41 drivers entered for Saturday’s Xfinity Series event at Watkins Glen International, three teams had to pack up early and head back home. Those teams were Blaine Perkins (No. 29 RSS Racing), Jade Buford (No. 07 SS-GreenLight Racing), and Kyle Keller (No. 13 MBM Motorsports).
