The Watkins Glen weekend was full of highs and lows for 19-year-old Connor Zilisch. After leading the most laps in Friday’s Truck race, he lost out to Kaden Honeycutt in overtime. However, he won Saturday’s NASCAR O’Reilly race with a dramatic pass on Jesse Love in the final corner of the final lap.
And then there’s the Cup race. Zilisch entered the Glen outside the top 30 in points, and still searching for his first top ten in Cup Series competition. Things started off well for him and the entire Trackhouse team, with all three cars qualifying inside the top five.
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Zilisch started fifth in his best qualifying effort of his career so far. He quickly made his way up to third and by the start of Stage 2, he was shadowing teammate Shane van Gisbergen for the race lead.
Beyond of pit stops, Zilisch did not run outside the top five for the first 50 laps of the 100-lap race.
Race-altering cautions and gambling on fuel
Shane van Gisbergen, Trackhouse Racing, Connor Zilisch, Trackhouse Racing
Shane van Gisbergen, Trackhouse Racing, Connor Zilisch, Trackhouse Racing
But with ten laps to go in Stage 2, a caution for debris from Joey Logano’s car saw Zilisch pit and restart at the back-end of the top ten. In the ensuing chaos of the restart, he had to avoid a spinning William Byron through the grass at the bus stop chicane, losing several positions.
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He still rallied back up to eighth by the end of Stage 2, and drove up to sixth by the time the final caution of the race flew with around 40 laps to go — just outside of the fuel window.
Zilisch pitted while SVG stayed out during that critical yellow, rolling the dice on being able to make it to the end with going back to pit road. For a while, it seemed like a good call. Zilisch cycled up to second as the race progressed, right behind Ty Gibbs for the race lead. When SVG pitted, he was almost 30 seconds behind the leading duo.
However, the chance for either driver to win that race began to fade as SVG and Michael McDowell sliced through the pack after making green-flag stops. Even still, if Zilisch just continued on, he was looking at a top five finish for the first time in his Cup career.
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Flat tire derails career-best day
He challenged Gibbs for the lead into the bus stop just before SVG arrived, but could not clear the Joe Gibbs Racing driver. He suffered a major lockup there, and began to fade soon after.
With eight laps to go, fuel was no longer the primary concern for the Trackhouse No. 88 as the right-front tire suddenly went down.
Zilisch limped the car back to the pits, and spent the final handful of laps trying to get whatever he could out of the day. He recorded the fastest lap in that time, but only reached 20th place on track.
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“Sorry man,” the team radioed as Zilisch crossed the finish line.
“I’m not sure what cut the tire there at the end. We were running on those tires for a long time, so not surprised to see it happen necessarily, but just frustrating. We had a really good day going. At worst, we were going to get ourselves out first top five and walk out of here with something…”
He went on to praise SVG and Trackhouse for securing the win — the first of the year for that organization.
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“It didn’t quite end the way we wanted it to,” continued Zilisch. “We needed last year’s race length of about 90 laps and I probably would have been a little better, but it is what it is.”
In later interviews, Zilisch noted that he doesn’t see a scenario where he could beat SVG, but lamented how long he spent behind Gibbs, saying: “…When you’re so close, it’s just frustrating. I should have passed Ty (Gibbs). I don’t think it would have been any better to stay behind him. I could have saved more fuel in front of him and ran faster, but I’ll learn from it and be better moving forward.”
It’s been a frustrating year for the only ROTY candidate and one of NASCAR’s most promising young stars, and Watkins Glen was just the latest chapter in what could have been for the No. 88 team.
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