XFINITY: Connor Zilisch Wins in NASCAR Xfinity Debut at Watkins Glen
What a dream weekend it's been for Connor Zilisch, an 18-year-old Trackhouse Racing development driver. Driving the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro in his series debut, Zilisch took the race win in dramatic fashion in Saturday's NASCAR Xfinity Series Mission 200 at The Glen at Watkins Glen International. With the win, Zilisch became just the seventh driver in the history of the NASCAR Xfinity Series, which was established in 1982, to win on debut.
Zilisch, at 18-years, one month, 23 days, also became the second-youngest driver to ever win a NASCAR Xfinity Series race. Two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano, who finished ninth in Saturday's race driving for AM Racing, still holds the record at 18-years, 21 days old.
In what turned out to be a nearly flawless day, according to the boxscore as Zilisch started from the pole, won Stage 1, and led a race-high 45 laps on his path to a win in Overtime, the young prodigy had to overcome a head-scratching strategy call early in the race, his own mental error late in the race, and having nothing but fumes left in his gas tank in the closing laps to rally for the race win.
After climbing from his race car, Zilisch, who also won Friday's ARCA Menards Series event at Watkins Glen in dominating fashion, flashed a little bit of emotion in his victory interview on USA Network.
The emotions of a first-time winner.
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) September 14, 2024
Welcome to the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Welcome to Victory Lane, Connor Zilisch. pic.twitter.com/oa2tzBELQ1
"Man, I don't even have words, I worked so hard for this one," Zilisch said, holding back his emotions. "I've been working for this one for months. It's so special to me man, I don't even have words right now, I don't know how I saved enough [gas]. 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."
Zilisch would take the win over Joe Gibbs Racing's Sheldon Creed, who picked up his 12th runner-up finish in his 95th career NASCAR Xfinity Series start. Creed, who is still searching for his elusive first-career win, says he wasn't even upset about coming up short this time because of a mad dash that he made at the end to put himself in a position to capitalize if Zilisch ran out of fuel.
Creed snatched the second position coming to the white flag by way of an eye-opening three-wide pass on Shane van Gisbergen and Chandler Smith coming off of Turn 7. That move put him in position, but Zilisch had just enough gas to get to the finish.
"Strategy got weird there at the end. Cars running out of fuel and this and that, and our battle for second was crazy between the four of us. I think we all knew that might have been the battle for the win if the 88 (Connor Zilisch) ran out," Creed explained. "To get clear there in second, I was just waiting for the 88 to run out of fuel there and the caution came out before we finished it.
"I don’t know if he makes it or not, but I’m not mad at the second today because I thought we overachieved a bit for how we ran, so days like that are always really good. Just another top-five. We will keep clicking away. It is a great time to be starting to get consistent for the Playoffs.”
AJ Allmendinger, the driver of the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet Camaro, would finish the day in third, while Chandler Smith and Shane van Gisbergen would round out the top-five finishers in Saturday afternoon's race.
After dominating Stage 1 of Saturday's race, Zilisch's No. 88 team opted to keep him on track to collect the Stage 1 win, while a large portion of the field hit pit road to set themselves up for better track position in Stage 2, and for the remainder of the race. While this call led to a Stage Win for Zilisch, it also caused him to be mired deep in the field as he would restart 14th on the ensuing Stage 2 resart.
Zilisch would claw his way back through the field to finish third in Stage 2, and as it looked like he was about to make his move to dominate the final Stage of the race, the driver, along with Ty Gibbs and Sam Mayer in front of him, blasted through the access road in the bus stop under the caution. This is a no-no, as NASCAR requires drivers to run the entire course even under yellow flag conditions. As a result, all three drivers were sent to the rear of the field.
That wouldn't be able to stop Zilisch, as he clawed his way back into the mix with a combination of top-tier speed and a call by his crew chief Andrew Overstreet to attempt to stretch their fuel tank to the finish, allowed him to regain the track position he had lost, and on Lap 67 Zilisch was back in the lead of the race.
While he started roughly two laps short on fuel heading into the final run of the race, Zilisch was instructed to save fuel, which he did, and he was aided by several cautions down the stretch to help him make it to the scheduled race distance. However, another incident with five laps remaining would send the race into Overtime, which would put his win into question.
When the race restarted, Zilisch charged to a impressive lead, and when a big crash erupted on the final lap, Zilisch was leading the race, and had just enough fuel to get to the finish line, and perform some victory burnouts.
The melee on the final lap of the race was disaster for Playoff hopeful Ryan Sieg, who was swept up and suffered massive damage in the carnage. Sieg would be scored with a 22nd-place finish on a day where he was in or around the top-10 for the majority of the race. With one race remaining until the start of the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs, Sieg now trails Sammy Smith by 43 points for the final Playoff spot.
Next week's NASCAR Xfinity Series regular-season finale will be contested at Bristol Motor Speedway on Friday, September 20. That race will be televised on The CW beginning at 7:30 PM ET.
Toby Christie is the Editor-in-Chief of Racing America. He has 15 years of experience as a motorsports journalist and has been with Racing America since 2023.