Connor Zilisch looks up to NASCAR Hall of Famer and current NHRA drag racing star Tony Stewart. But there’s a big difference between the two drivers. While Stewart oftentimes lets his mouth — and sometimes even his fists — do the talking for him in battles with rivals or even the media, Zilisch is much more gentlemanly.
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A good example of that is Zilisch’s relationship with Jesse Love. The two are good friends off-track, but once they get behind the wheel, it’s every man for himself. But if Love were to do something to really tick Zilisch off, or if Love put Zilisch into the wall, it’s very likely Zilisch would turn the other cheek.
For example, Stewart said several times during his career that he’d wreck his mother if it meant he would earn the win. Here’s Zilisch’s take: “You know the saying, ‘I’d wreck my mom for a win,’” Zilisch said after winning Saturday’s Xfinity Series race at Pocono. “It’s tough because you don’t want to have to go hang out on Monday and him be mad at me.
“But at the same time, a win is a win. If it’s for fifth place or whatever, I might be a little bit nicer than most other guys. But for the win, I’m going to race everyone like I want to win and that’s kind of just the bottom line and he would do the same and I expect the same out of him.”
It’s rare for rivals to help each other — but friends do
Love made a mistake in Saturday’s race that allowed Zilisch to sneak by him and grab the lead, holding onto it the remainder of the race. But there was no animosity from Love and no bragging from Zilisch.
The reason? “We’re really good friends off the track, we help each other,” Zilisch said. “I help him on the road courses and he helps me on the ovals vice-versa.
“We help each other a lot but at the same time we push each other to be better too. We hold each other to a standard and when one of us isn’t doing well, we let the other one know.”
“It’s really cool to have someone like him that I can lean on and that also pushes me to be better,” he said of Love. “We’re both pretty young and coming up and I don’t want to get beat by him and he doesn’t want to get beat by me either, so it pushes both of us to be better.”
With NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. in his pit box as crew chief for a one-off race, Zilisch beat Love to the finish line Saturday by just under half a second. It was Zilisch’s second win of the season, having done so earlier at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.
