Connor Zilisch won Friday night’s WAWA 250 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Daytona International Speedway—but he didn’t cross the finish line. Parker Kligerman did cross the finish line first, but he didn’t get credit for the win. And Justin Allgaier was just happy that he could push Zilisch’s car, driven by Kligerman, and finish third himself—his best showing since winning at Nashville, nearly three months ago.
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Confused?
Well, as Allgaier said, “Tonight was different.”
Indeed, it was.
The 19-year-old Zilisch, who suffered a broken collarbone (which required surgery) when he fell from his winning car in victory lane two weeks ago at Watkins Glen, started Friday’s race to assure himself of earning both the finish and the points that came with it.
However, the plan always was to have him replaced early in the race by a substitute driver, and that wound up being Kligerman, who replaced Zilisch during a caution on Lap 13.
From that point, Kligerman piloted the car, leading a total of 12 laps, including the final ten, to earn the win for Zilisch and JR Motorsports (and for Kligerman himself by default, even though he won’t be credited with anything).
“I’m still going to count this as a win, I’m going to take the checkered flag,” Kligerman told the CW Network.
Zilisch complimented his understudy, also telling the CW Network, “I think everybody knows Parker won the race today.”
While Kligerman certainly deserves a lot of credit for what he did, he got a huge assist at the end of the race from Allgaier, who helped push Zilisch’s No. 88 Chevrolet and Kligerman to victory.
“I was nervous about Connor even getting in the car, if I’m being honest with you,” Allgaier said after the race. “I’ve had injuries and tried to race with them, and it’s a great idea on paper until you strap the seatbelts on. To see the whole weekend play out like it did and to see all those guys to not only have a good day, but to win the race is cool.”
But in a further twist of irony, although Allgaier finished third, and even though he led fewer laps (6) than Zilisch’s 12 laps led (all by Kligerman), Allgaier leaves Daytona with a three-point lead in the Xfinity Series standings over Zilisch with two more regular-season races to go. However, Zilisch (with the assistance of Kligerman) increased his series-leading total wins this season to seven.
Allgaier took the points lead because he had a better finish than Kligerman in Stage 1 (fifth) and won Stage 2.
It was a 1-2-3 sweep for JR Motorsports, with Zilisch claiming the win by 0.200 seconds over runner-up Sammy Smith and Allgaier.
“It’s disappointing to come out of here third, but either way it was a solid finish, solid day,” Allgaier said. “Company-wise, it was a great day. There were a lot of positives.”
Allgaier took some personal consolation as well.
“Our summer has been atrocious, and I feel like our team needed a night like tonight to get back on track and put ourselves in a position to have a good go at it in these next few (races),” Allgaier said. “No damage on the car, I don’t think I even had a scratch on it, so lots of positives tonight, even though we finished third.”
Allgaier complimented Kligerman for doing what he did under difficult circumstances.
“Parker has gone through a lot,” Allgaier said.
“We came to this sport similar, we both started at Penske. We both came into this sport in this little bubble that was really hard to get out of. Yeah, we both stayed in the sport, but I’d say it really limited our direction. We both went different directions, but kind of the same path. I’ve watched Parker put the time and effort in. I watched (Zilisch) this week, he did a lot of preparation for the driver swap and being prepared.”
The Xfinity Series has not seen a replacement driver take the checkered flag since 2007, when Aric Almirola started for Denny Hamlin, who was late getting to the track due to travel issues, before Hamlin took over 44 laps into the race and then went on to earn the win for Almirola, not himself.
While the NASCAR Cup Series officially ends its regular season Saturday night, and the Truck Series has already completed its regular season, the Xfinity Series still has two races remaining in its regular season, with the next event being August 30 on the road course at Portland International Raceway.
