At 18 years, 1 month, and 23 days old, Connor Zilisch is officially the second-youngest winner in NASCAR Xfinity Series history.
The native of Mooresville, North Carolina coasted across the start-finish line in his Carolina Carports No. 88 Chevrolet Camaro, after making a masterful fuel save in the closing laps of the event.
Saturday’s Xfinity Series event featured a chaotic finish and three attempts at NASCAR Overtime, which pushed the race distance to 90 laps, equal to what the NASCAR Cup Series will run on Sunday, which made all the crew chiefs on the strategy that ultimately won the race, extremely nervous.
“Man, I don’t even have words, I worked so hard for this one. I’ve been working for this one for months,” said an emotional Zilisch. “It’s so special to me man, I don’t even have words right now, I don’t know how I saved enough. I sputtered up the hill and with two to go I didn’t think I was going to make it back to the line, I was saving the last two laps. I’m going to enjoy this one for a while.”
All of this, the early race domination, the chaos of triple overtime, the fuel saving, and the late-race restarts, all were mastered by Zilisch in his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut.
The victory makes Zilisch the seventh driver in the NASCAR Xfinity Series to win on debut, and the first driver across NASCAR’s National Series to win both the pole position and the race in their first start. Other debut winners include Dale Earnhardt, Joe Ruttman, Ricky Rudd, Terry Labonte, Kurt Busch, and Ty Gibbs.
For the JR Motorsports driver, the opening stage of the race was immaculate, spanking the field and crossing the start-finish line more than 10 seconds ahead of his teammate Justin Allgaier. Then, the driver of the No. 88 had to drive through some traffic, which he managed to do splendidly.
The biggest misstep of the afternoon for Zilisch, came at the beginning of the race’s final stage, when the driver of the No. 88, along with top-two runners Ty Gibbs and Sam Mayer drove through the chicane under caution, without coming to a complete stop. That dropkicked him to the tail-end of the longest line but allowed him to make his final pit stop in the process, which the driver then stretched to the end.
Sheldon Creed, for the 12th time in his NASCAR Xfinity Series career, finished runner-up at the 2.45-mile road course, after an intense battle between five different cars in the last two laps. It was in that pack, that the final caution of the afternoon was triggered.
RESULTS: 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series Mission 200 at Watkins Glen
That wreck started with contact between Ryan Sieg and Riley Herbst, which then spun the No. 98 across the racetrack and directly into the path of several other drivers, including Austin Green, Brennan Poole, Jeremy Clements, and Ed Jones. The several hellacious impacts forced NASCAR to throw the yellow, ending the event.
Despite being in contention for the win during several late-race restarts, AJ Allmendinger was unable to close the deal, bringing home a third-place finish for Kaulig Racing. Chandler Smith finished in fourth, after fighting early overheating issues and getting off-strategy with the biggest contenders.
Shane Van Gisbergen rounded out the top five, ending his streak of three consecutive wins in the NASCAR Xfinity Series on road courses. Ross Chastain, a defacto teammate at Trackhouse (despite neither driver being in a Trackhouse entry) finished sixth for DGM Racing.
Parker Kligerman rebounded from early-race transmission issues to finish seventh, with Jesse Love using new tires to get into eighth. Logano scored a ninth-place result with AM Racing, despite nearly missing the race altogether, qualifying 33rd. Josh Bilicki rounded out the top-10 in the No. 91 for DGM Racing.
Despite multiple incidents and a 17th-place finish, Justin Allgaier still extended his regular-season points lead over Cole Custer, and while it isn’t necessarily clinched at this moment heading into Bristol Motor Speedway, it is a near-guarantee, with a 43-point advantage.
Starting Friday at Bristol, the NASCAR Xfinity Series will be shown exclusively on The CW, beginning with the Cheddar’s 300. Coverage will begin at 7:30 pm ET.
