It’s been nothing short of an incredible NASCAR Xfinity Series rookie season for Connor Zilisch. To say the Mooresville, North Carolina native is dominating the series is an understatement.
Advertisement
In the first 25 races of the 33-race season, the 19-year-old Zilisch has won nine races, as well as recorded 15 top five and 17 top 10 finishes, plus seven poles.
But with the seven-race Xfinity Series playoffs set to begin Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway, the driver of the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet readily knows that as quickly as success has come to him, adversity could quickly turn things around on a dime.
“The playoffs change things,” Zilisch told New York City TV station PIX 11 News earlier this week. “We as a sport, you start the playoffs and you can win 10 races in the regular season. And then, if you have two bad races in the playoffs, you’re eliminated from the championship.
“It certainly is a unique format for NASCAR and it definitely makes it exciting for the fans. So as a driver, you just have to go into the race weekend and trying to execute and not have a really bad day because that’s what can end your year in a hurry.”
Speaking of having a bad day in a hurry, that happened to Zilisch just over a month ago at Watkins Glen Raceway. On the plus side, he won the race there. But as he was trying to jump off the door jamb of his race car while celebrating in victory lane, his foot got caught in the driver’s netting.
He fell to the pavement and suffered a broken collarbone, which is still healing from. But even that hasn’t stopped him. He comes into Friday’s playoff opener having locked up the Xfinity Series regular season championship having won seven of his last eight starts.
“I’ve won (three) races since I broke my collarbone, so I guess it hasn’t slowed me down that much yet,” Zilisch said.
