LONG POND — Connor Zilisch had never seen Pocono Raceway before Saturday.
But with a little help from his boss Dale Earnhardt Jr., the 18-year-old rookie found his way to Victory Lane at the 2.5-mile triangular track.
Zilisch survived a caution-filled race and passed his best friend Jesse Love for the lead with five laps remaining to win the 10th annual Explore the Pocono Mountains 250 NASCAR Xfinity Series race.
Starting ninth, Zilisch led a total of 34 laps in the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet to earn his second win of the season, third of his career and first on an oval track. His previous two victories came on road courses: Watkins Glen last season and Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, in March.
“My pit crew in Victory Lane said, ‘You won on a triangle. You still haven’t won on an oval yet,’” Zilisch said. “It’s awesome. I’ve been working for this for a while now. I feel like I’ve been close so many times. Charlotte, I had a chance on a late-race restart. Nashville, I lost it on a late-race restart. Finally, all the cards fell our way today. We were able to get the lead with a few laps to go and set sail. It was such a cool race and having Dale in my ear.
“I definitely listened to what he said. He’s got way more experience than I do. He’s won here in a Cup car twice. He’s my crew chief; there’s no reason he’d give me bad information.”
Earnhardt Jr., who owns JR Motorsports, filled in as Zilisch’s crew chief Saturday while Mardy Lindley served a one-race suspension for a missing lug nut violation three weeks ago at Nashville. Earnhardt Jr. also helped out on pit stops, handing the left-front tire to the tire changer.
In the postrace press conference, the NASCAR Hall of Famer was absolutely giddy.
“I did not come in here and handle all the layers that Marty usually handles or any true crew chief manages,” Earnhardt said. “They certainly put me in a position to do some light lifting. But as the race went on, we got more comfortable and aggressive. It was fun.
“I felt like I really had some involvement and input in the energy the team had, the over-the-wall guys, keeping them pumped up and keeping everybody executing, keeping Connor aware of what our goals and expectations were on these restarts. He wanted to deliver on all of those expectations. In that aspect, it was a good day.”
Love had to settle for second place in the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. Rookie Christian Eckes was third in the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet. Cup Series regular Chase Elliott, who won the pole for the race, finished fourth in the No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Ryan Sieg in the No. 39 RSS Racing Ford rounded out the top five.
There were 10 cautions, setting the race record. The previous mark was nine in June 2020. That led to a variety of strategies, as well as chaotic restarts.
Elliott had, perhaps, the best car, leading a race-high 38 laps. But his chance at victory fell by the wayside when his car and Justin Allgaier’s got together while battling for the lead, heading into Turn 1 on a Lap 88 restart. That enabled Love to sneak by them and into the lead.
“I just think he ran in there too hard. Kind of caught a bad section of air or something weird that got him turned sideways,” Elliott said. “At that point, I just saw him coming toward my door real fast. What am I going to do? Either give him space or crowd him and crash. It was kind of up to me at that point if we were going to have two destroyed race cars. It wasn’t worth tearing up the (stuff).
“I have a lot of respect for Justin, we’ve always raced each other with a lot of respect. Equally as much away from the race track, too. I don’t have any ill will against him. I hate that he made a mistake with me, considering it’s my last (Xfinity race) for the year. The ol’ Hendrick car 17 is pretty fast right now. I was wanting to cash in on that.”
Kyle Sieg spun in Turn 2 on Lap 90 to bring out the final yellow flag of the race and set up the final restart on Lap 95. Zilisch was in third behind Love and Eckes, but got past Eckes in Turn 1. Then coming out of Turn 3, he pulled to the inside of Love and passed him for the lead at the start-finish line. He took the checkered flag 0.437 seconds ahead of Love.
“You know the saying: I’d wreck my mom for a win,” Zilisch said. “It’s tough. You don’t want to go hang out on Monday and have him mad at me. But at the same time, a win is a win. For the win, I’m going to race everyone like I want to win. He would do the same and I expect the same from him.
“I was trying to race him clean and give him a shot to race me. But he got a little bit loose off (Turn) 3 and I was able to sneak under him. I had the better car today, for sure. We’ve had really fast cars lately in all aspects. It was just a matter of time when I got in the top three with the 2 (Love) and the 16 (Eckes) where I was going to be able to sneak by and make a move. It just took one little mistake from Jesse and I was able to sneak by without any chaos or contact.”
Love said he did everything he could to catch his buddy in the final laps.
“That was the most locked in and serious I’ve ever been in a race car trying to get back to him and trying to get to his inside,” Love said. “I did not want Connor to beat me because I’ll have to hear about it for a long time. But, he was just so fast and so hard to catch and had so much exit speed.”
Brandon Jones won the first stage and Zilisch won Stage 2.
Six spots still remain for the Xfinity playoffs with 10 races left.
Sam Mayer, who finished seventh, is 118 points above the cutline. Carson Kvapil, who took sixth, is 42 points above. Jeb Burton finished 11th and is 24 points to the good. Sheldon Creed, who finished 36th, is 20 points above. Ryan Sieg entered the race tied for the final spot with Taylor Gray, but used his fifth-place effort to move 15 points above the cut. Gray, who finished ninth, is on the bubble, 11 points ahead of Harrison Burton, who finished 14th.
Source: Berkshire mont