On the eve of his NASCAR Cup Series debut, Connor Zilisch showed many of the traits that had established him as arguably the top ranked prospect in the discipline but also a lack of polish that might be the only thing left to work on this season.
Zilish won his second race at the second highest level in just his seventh start, not to mention third start as a full-timer for JR Motorsports, but at to overcome several self-inflicted wounds to do so.
He dominated the early stages but suffered a pit road commitment line violation that sent him to the rear. He methodically drove back into the top-10 over the next half of the race but triggered a Corey Heim spin on the way. He roughed up teammate Carson Kvapil racing for the lead and nearly damaged his car beyond viability in the process.
“Yeah, I’ve already texted three people that I thought I done wrong today and I just need to learn to drive at 80 percent of these places,” Zilisch said. “I’m so fast but that penalty hindered us and got my head spinning. I need to stay calmer.”
But again, he is already one of the greatest road course racers in the world, even at 18-years-old and he never needed to be that aggressive on Heim or Kvapil. Even though he celebrate the accomplishment in Victory Lane, with his team, he knows this was not entirely one to be proud of.
“I’m honestly more frustrated with myself than I am happy,” Zilisch said. “I made way too many mistakes. That made it way harder on myself. There are so many things I could say about myself that I could have done better. I don’t know how we came back and won the race. It’s just a testament to how fast our car was but I definitely have a lot to clean up moving forward.
“It was way too chaotic of a race for my liking but we got the job done anyway. It is what it is but definitely a lot of frustrating mistakes.”
Now, Zilisch is the second youngest driver to have multiple Xfinity Series wins behind Joey Logano and has a chance on Sunday to break the three-time champion’s record as the youngest Cup Series winner.
“Yeah, that’s pretty cool.” Zilisch said. “It was good to be in the pack because I learned a lot about the passing zones and that helped me prepare for tomorrow. It’s going to be a lot tougher tomorrow. Everyone is so good in the Cup Series that you can’t easily pass.
“The Cup Series is a different beast but cool to get my second win, in what, seven races? Excited to do that and looking forward to the rest of the schedule but it’s no secret that tomorrow is a big deal.”
Corey Heim
One of those text messages from Zilisch likely made its way to Corey Heim, who said a lot with very little, as did Cup Series veteran Denny Hamlin after the race.
Carson Kvapil
The rookie JR Motorsports driver finished 23rd but the two-time CARS Tour short track champion looked like a polished road racer running second until the exchange of paint with Zilisch. The result is a disappointment but he was pleased in the process and performance.
Is he a road course racer now?
“I wouldn’t really say so,” Kvapil said. “I still see myself as a short track guy but we sure had a really good showing here. This Johnny Morris Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet, I thought it would be fast and have good speed. It was kind of cool to see it kind of come to life there. We battled some adversity all race …”
Was he miffed with his teammate?
“I might feel a little bit miffed about that one,” Kvapil said. “It just seemed like every corner, I would get blasted out of the way. Whenever you get to this level, everyone is aggressive but at the same time, I was like ‘what the heck man?’
“Definitely will have that in my back pocket for next time but we’re on to the next one.”
Kvapil credited a start in a TransAm2 car last year to getting him immediately comfortable this weekend.
“It wasn’t the same course so a slightly different layout but that also got me laps,” Kvapil said. “This Xfinity car is quite different but a lot of the characteristics carried over despite not being a road course guy. I have to credit my conditioning to the Josh Wise program too.”
