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

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.