Although Connor Zilisch, widely regarded as a road course virtuoso, stamped his authority early by grabbing pole for Saturday’s Xfinity race at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, his march toward victory came undone by a late-race clash, relegating him to a fifth-place finish.
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Through the first two stages of The Chilango 150, both Zilisch and Ty Gibbs looked ready to take center stage in NASCAR’s long-awaited return to Mexico. But when the final stage went green, their dominance gave way to pandemonium.
On Lap 47 of 65, as Stage 3 got underway, Zilisch charged into Turn 1, one of the track’s tightest points, diving inside of a three-wide battle involving Gibbs and Daniel Suárez. After bouncing over the curbs, his No. 88 car slammed into the side of Gibbs, triggering a chain reaction that collected William Sawalich and several others through the serpentine Turn 2 and Turn 3 sequence.
Asked about the incident that derailed Zilisch’s race, Gray didn’t mince words, saying, “Zilisch just bombed it off in there. I don’t know what else you want me to say. That’s really about it.
“I like Connor a lot. He gets really aggressive on road courses, but I mean, he’s really fast. He can do that. So yeah, he puts himself in bad spots, and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.”
The crash at one of the circuit’s most unforgiving sections swept up 13 cars, halting the momentum of the race’s two strongest frontrunners. Between them, Zilisch and Gibbs had led 33 of the opening 40 laps, but their bid for international glory came apart.
Despite the damage, Zilisch, a rookie for JR Motorsports, clawed his way back to finish fifth, marking his third straight top-five finish since returning from injury. Gibbs wasn’t as fortunate, limping home 14th in his lone Xfinity appearance of the year.
As Daniel Suárez capitalized on the mayhem to claim a crowd-pleasing win, Taylor Gray brought the No. 19 Toyota across the line in second.
The 18-year-old JR Motorsports driver sits fifth in the Xfinity Series standings with 430 points, with one win, four top-five finishes, and six top-10s in 14 starts, a promising ledger for a rookie who continues to turn heads, even when the road gets rough.
