Connor Zilisch’s reputation as a phenom in the world of NASCAR racing is growing immensely by the day. After Saturday, the 18-year-old racer is now a three-time race winner in the NASCAR Xfinity Series ranks as he held off Jesse Love in the closing laps to score the win in the Explore the Pocono Mountains 250 at Pocono Raceway.
RACE RESULTS: Explore the Pocono Mountains 250 at Pocono
The win at the 2.5-mile triangular Pocono Raceway is the first victory for Zilisch on a non-road course layout in his NASCAR Xfinity Series tenure, and the win also marked the first win as a crew chief for Dale Earnhardt Jr., a NASCAR Hall of Fame driver, and championship-winning team owner in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
“I’ve been dying for this one for a while, now. I know it hasn’t felt that long, but man, I’ve been so close on the ovals lately,” Zilisch explained. “I finished second at Charlotte, second at Nashville. And yeah, Dale Jr., not too bad on the [pit] box. Pretty cool to have him up there. Thank you so much to the entire JR Motorsports team.”
Zilisch continued, “It’s an honor to be here, and this one is definitely special. I’ve been chasing the oval win for a while, now.”
Earnhardt was making his debut as a crew chief on Saturday as Zilisch’s primary crew chief, Mardy Lindley, was serving a one-race suspension due to two unsecured lug nuts discovered on the No. 88 Chevrolet in post-race inspection at Nashville Superspeedway a few weeks ago.
Zilisch said that his team owner did a great job of keeping him focused during the restarts, and he credits Lindley for setting the No. 88 team up perfectly heading into the race weekend.
“It’s pretty funny, [Earnhardt] was kicking me in the ass on some of those restarts, giving me some advice. The advice from him is advice well taken from me, so yeah, it was really cool to have him. And to get him one for one win as a crew chief was pretty awesome as well,” Zilisch said. “But yeah, Mardy did everything right to set this up. I wish he could have been on the box today, but I know he was with us in spirit.”
Love, who drives for Richard Childress Racing, is best friends with Zilisch, but the driver of the No. 2 car wasn’t happy after losing the race after he held the lead with under five laps to go.
“I think that was the most focused I’ve ever been inside of a race car. I did not want Connor to beat me, I’m going to have to hear about it for a long time, unfortunately,” Love anguished. “Hats off to him, he ran a good race, and once I had some draft, I was able to get back to him. And man, that bums me out, it pisses me off. I’m not going to lie. But I’m still trying to be grateful for the situation. We have fast race cars and we’re in position to win.”
Christian Eckes, who, along with Zilisch, is part of a super-talented NASCAR Xfinity Series Rookie of the Year class, finished the race in third position. The Kaulig Racing driver is now up to three top-five finishes on the season, and Saturday’s run was his best yet in his career.
Chase Elliott, who was a late addition to the Hendrick Motorsports NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule for this event, was the dominator of the race as he led a race-high 38 laps from the pole position. However, on a Lap 88 restart, Elliott was shipped up the track by Justin Allgaier in a battle for the lead in Turn 1. Both drivers lost tremendous amounts of track position, and this situation paved the way for Love and Zilisch to battle it out for the lead.
Elliott would rebound to finish fourth, but he was left to lament the Lap 88 restart, which effectively ended his bid for the win.
“It definitely changed my ending, for sure,” Elliott said. “[Allgaier] came over and apologized, so I’m assuming he got in there and got loose. Yeah, I just saw him rapidly approaching my door. And you know, typically at that point, you have a choice to either just crash or give him the space he needs to gather it up, because we were both in trouble at that point. Yeah, really bummed though. We had such a fast HendrickCars.com Chevy, and it was really fun.”
Ryan Sieg would bolster his NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoff hopes with a solid fifth-place run while Carson Kvapil, Sam Mayer, Sammy Smith, Taylor Gray, and Justin Allgaier rounded out the top-10 finishers in the Explore the Pocono Mountains 250.
With another top-10 finish combined with a 35th-place day for Austin Hill, Allgaier will leave Pocono Raceway with an 82-point advantage in the NASCAR Xfinity Series Regular Season championship battle.
Sieg, who entered the race outside of the Playoff cutline, vaulted three spots forward with his fifth-place effort and now finds himself 11th in the 12-man Playoff race. With 10 races remaining until the Playoffs, Sieg sits 18 points above the Playoff cutline.
NASCAR Xfinity Series Cutline (10 races remaining in regular season)
7. Sam Mayer, +118 points
8. Carson Kvapil, +42
9. Jeb Burton, +24
10. Sheldon Creed, +20
11. Ryan Sieg, +18
12. Taylor Gray, +11
===Cut Line===
13. Harrison Burton, -11
14. Nick Sanchez, -26
15. Christian Eckes, -55
16. Daniel Dye, -75
Next up for the NASCAR Xfinity Series is the Focused Health 250 at EchoPark Speedway (formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway) on Friday, June 27. That race will be televised on The CW with the broadcast coverage set to kick off at 7:30 PM ET.
