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“It Was Almost the Expectation”: Connor Zilisch Reflects on Kyle Larson Winning While Substituting for the JRM Regular

Jerry Bonkowski
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NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Connor Zilisch (88) during qualifying for the United Rentals 300 at Daytona International Speedway.

No race car driver likes to be replaced due to a lingering injury from a previous event. But if you’re going to have a substitute driver, there’s likely no one better than Kyle Larson.

That was the case for Connor Zilisch in Saturday’s Xfinity Series race at Texas Motor Speedway. He is still recovering from a lower back injury suffered in a late-race wreck last Saturday at Talladega.

As a result, Larson filled in for Zilisch and took JR Motorsports to victory lane, teaching a lesson to the rest of the Xfinity field. While Zilisch would have liked to have been back in his race car, there was no bittersweet feeling given that his fill-in guy took the team to the checkered flag.

“It’s great to see the team in victory lane,” Zilisch said. “Coming into the weekend, (a win) was almost the expectation with Kyle driving the car, he’s so talented. It’s great for our team.

“There’s really not much bitter(sweet) in me, other than I had to miss this race… We brought a real fast car for Kyle and Kyle executed and did a real great job as well. I’m proud of the team and excited to hopefully be back in Charlotte.” Xfinity Series has a two-week break now.

Zilisch watched the race from the team’s pit box, taking a number of mental notes on how Larson made things look easy.

“It was real cool to listen to Kyle and watch what he does and actually be able to focus in on him all day long,” Zilisch said. “He’s super-talented and I have nothing but the utmost respect for him and how good he is. Yeah, I learned a lot listening to him today and I hope to be able to race against him one day toe-to-toe.”

Larson back in the TMS saddle after a decade

Ironically, it was Larson’s first Xfinity Series win at Texas in 10 years. The former Cup champ likes dropping down on occasion to race in either the Xfinity or Truck Series. He feels not only is he able to keep his skills sharp, but he also likes to show lower-tier drivers the type of talent they’ll one day face if they ever move up to the Cup Series.

“It worked out, thankfully, stayed out of some craziness around us mid-race and just had a great car,” Larson said. “We just had to be smart about it and slowly pick our way to the front… It’s fun to get out there and race and mix it up with them. It was a lot of fun today.”

Larson will back in the Cup Series on Sunday to race in the Würth 400 after he qualified fourth.

Post Edited By:Abhishek Ramesh

About the author

Jerry Bonkowski

Jerry Bonkowski

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Jerry Bonkowski is a veteran sportswriter who has worked full-time for many of the top media outlets in the world, including USA Today (15 years), ESPN.com (4+ years), Yahoo Sports (4 1/2 years), NBCSports.com (8 years) and others. He has covered virtually every major professional and collegiate sport there is, including the Chicago Bulls' six NBA championships (including heavy focus on Michael Jordan), the Chicago Bears Super Bowl XX-winning season, the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs World Series championships, two of the Chicago Blackhawks' NHL titles, Tiger Woods' PGA Tour debut, as well as many years of beat coverage of the NFL, MLB, NHL and NBA for USA Today. But Jerry's most notable achievement has been covering motorsports, most notably NASCAR, IndyCar, NHRA drag racing and Formula One. He has had a passion for racing since he started going to watch drag races at the old U.S. 30 Dragstrip (otherwise known as "Where the Great Ones Run!") in Hobart, Indiana. Jerry has covered countless NASCAR, IndyCar and NHRA races and championship battles over the years. He's also the author of a book, "Trading Paint: 101 Great NASCAR Debates", published in 2010 (and he's hoping to soon get started on another book). Away from sports, Jerry was a fully sworn part-time police officer for 20 years, enjoys reading and music (especially "hair bands" from the 1980s and 1990s), as well as playing music on his electric keyboard, driving (fast, of course!), spending time with Cyndee his wife of nearly 40 years, the couple's three adult children and three grandchildren (with more to come!), and his three dogs -- including two German Shepherds and an Olde English Bulldog who thinks he's a German Shepherd.. Jerry still gets the same excitement of seeing his byline today as he did when he started in journalism as a 15-year-old high school student. He is looking forward to writing hundreds, if not thousands, of stories in the future for TheSportsRush.com, as well as interacting with readers.

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