by Connor Zilisch would start an easy journey to his second Xfinity series victory on the Circuit of the Americas on Saturday afternoon, starting on the post. However, an early fine meant that the 18-year-old was forced to race back through the field.
After having kept his penalty, Zilian started in the 32nd position and went up to the 16th within five laps. After the penalty felt the rest of the race in a fog, he led to his mistakes and aggression to come back.
“That fine is difficult, right?” Zilian said in the press conference. “If you are the fastest car and sail in the front, send a penalty that is not really in your own control to the last.”
Zilian claims a play -off place in his Rookie season and will go in his Cup Series -debut tomorrow with the confidence of his second career -winning in the Xfinity series.
In the restart of the last stage, Zilian to third, just behind William Byron and Carson Kvapil. At De Restart, Zilian was aggressive in his pursuit of the lead and bumped into Byron. Zilische held third place while Austin Hill and Corey Heim sank through the chaos.
His aggressive move cost Zilian damage to its front. The damage did not delay the driver of the No. 88 when he ran the track faster than Heim and Hill for him.
“That was much more difficult than I wanted it to be, I didn’t drive a clean race at all, sorry for everyone I hit,” Zilisch told CW Sports.
With 14 to go, Hill made a mistake and missed a corner. Heim and Zilian benefited from the winner of Atlanta last week. Hill finished fourth, better than what he thought the car was capable of today.
“Anyway, the two boys behind us were faster than we were all day,” Hill told CW Sports.
Kvapil, who had the fastest round of the race, stopped Zilian until nine more laps were left. Then, on the way to the hill in turn one, Zilisch took the lead on the inside.
Kvapil remained the following laps at a striking distance and temporarily fought to regain the pipe. Eventually he overloaded his right side and wore in a flat place, causing him to return to the pits and ended up 23rd.
From there, the path from Zilian to victory was released when he finished 1.64 seconds before Byron, which he meets tomorrow while Zilisch tries to become the youngest winner in the Cup series History.
In his press conference after the race, Zilian was more angry with his mistakes than happy for his victory.
“To be honest, I am more frustrated with myself than I am happy. I made way too many mistakes today,” replied Zilian reporters, including R&T.
After the race, Zilian sent three SMS messages to teammates and competitors in the field that he felt that he ran too aggressively in his march.
“I have already sent three people that I believe I did wrong,” said Zilian. “I just have to drive at 80% in these places.”
Zilian is not going to concentrate alone on the upcoming road courses where he knows that he has his best chance of winning victories. There are 12 oval tracks between now and when the Xfinity series takes on the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez Road Course in Mexico City for the first point race of Nascar in Mexico. This block of oval racing is where Zilian will have to prove himself whether he wants to make a real push in the direction of a championship in his Rookie season. Zilisch was entangled in Crashes in both superspeedway races to open the 2025 season.
Victoria Beaver is a nomadic sportswriter who spends her time jumping between racing tracks and hippie farms. She has covered every corner of Motorsports that will leave her from 410 sprints to Nascar to Supercross. Her daily driver is a Subaru from 2010 on which she refused to put on the smallest amount of preventive maintenance. Instead, she spends her free time and money building a 42 -feet skoolie to travel through the country full -time for a day.
