Connor Zilisch returned to the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series at Watkins Glen on Saturday and won the Mission 200 at The Glen. With this, the JR Motorsports driver remained unbeaten at the track with three straight wins, won the 13th NOAPS race of his career, and denied Jesse Love yet another victory.

"Yeah, it was crazy," Zilisch said post-race. "I knocked the splitter off with five or six laps to go. I just settled in behind Jesse, and I was about a second, two seconds back, and I told myself, all right, I can finally relax a little bit, take it easy, and not make a mistake. And the first corner after I told myself that, you know, I got out of rhythm and made a mistake."

"So, yeah, I guess it's a sign to not, you know, bust yourself out of your rhythm. And I was able to clear, it cleared itself, the splitter did, and, you know, we were able to get back up to Jesse on the last lap, and I wasn't going to do anything egregious to win the race," the No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet driver added.

Zilisch's victory was a relief as the 19-year-old narrowly missed out on winning the Truck race on Friday, as he is trying a triple header this week. However, a victory on Saturday surely provided an impetus ahead of his Cup Series race.

Connor Zilisch started the race from 17th place, but fell to 18th by the end of Stage 1. He returned to the top in Stage 2 with a brilliant drive. At one point, he was 18 seconds behind Jesse Love, but in the final Stage, he overcame that deficit, and with a pass on the last corner of the last lap, he won with a 0.262-second gap.

Taylor Gray rounded up the podium, while Ross Chastain and Brandon Jones wrapped up the top five. Brent Crews, Parker Retzlaff, Shane van Gisbergen, Austin Green, and Justin Allgaier completed the Top 10.

While Connor Zilisch is rejoicing in the victory today, the narrow defeat yesterday made his triple header conquering target a miss.

Connor Zilisch upset after missing out on Truck Series win

On Friday, Connor Zilisch lost the Truck Series race to Kaden Honeycutt. During an overtime restart, the Spire Motorsports driver lost the lead to Honeycutt in Turn 1 and failed to close the gap again, coming home in runner-up position.

Speaking about his race, Zilisch said, "It was just an unfortunate way to end that race. I chose the top, hoping we could get through there without making contact. I knew that the bottom would be better if that happened, but I didn’t want to be that guy."

Despite starting in fifth place, Connor Zilisch fell to 11th place in Stage 1. He returned to the top in Stage 2, but failed to hold on to his position in the final stage. Kaden Honeycutt started from the back of the field in the final stage after a penalty for pitting when the pits were closed.

Despite that, he routed through the field in the 32-lap stage, with some cautions playing in his hands. He eventually overtook the No. Zilisch, and took the chequered flag with a 0.902-second advantage.

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Written by

Sabyasachi Biswas

Edited by

Yask Kotak