After leaving the track in an ambulance nine months ago, Connor Zilisch carefully slid down the front of his No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet following his triumph in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Watkins Glen International on Saturday, May 9.
It was a stark difference from the furious manner in which Zilisch drove the car in an effort to catch Jesse Love in the Mission 200 at The Glen. After a miscue with six laps remaining slowed his pursuit, Zilisch overtook his close friend with an inside pass on the final turn of the 82-lap race.
Zilisch, 19, became the third driver in series history to win three consecutive Watkins Glen races, joining Terry Labonte (1994-1996) and Marcos Ambrose (2008-2010).
“I was driving as hard as I could for all 30 of those laps, just trying to make up that gap,” said Zilisch, who overcame an 18-second gap without benefit of a caution flag. “I wasn’t going to move Jesse in the last corner there, but he got in deep and I was able to get by.”
Love ended up second in the 38-driver field, followed by Taylor Gray in third, Ross Chastain in fourth, and Brandon Jones in fifth.
Saturday’s victory came a day after Kaden Honeycutt got by Zilisch on the first lap of two in overtime to win the Craftsman Truck Series’ Bully Hill Vineyards 176 at The Glen.
It also followed an August 2025 O’Reilly race at the track in which Zilisch suffered a broken collarbone after he tripped on the netting of his car while trying to exit in victory lane.
Trackhouse Racing owner Justin Marks put a couch pillow from Zilisch’s RV below the driver’s seat in victory lane after Saturday’s race. Zilisch is driving full-time with Trackhouse Racing in the Cup Series, with Sunday’s Go Bowling at The Glen part of a tripleheader of weekend racing for the native of Charlotte, North Carolina.
Zilisch joked later he now has the upper hand against Watkins Glen’s victory lane, 2-1.
“It’s so cool to come back and get my third win at Watkins Glen in a row with JRM,” Zilisch said. “Cool to get it with Rodney (Childers). It’s my third different crew chief here.
“Really means a lot to get another one here and get out of the car safely and make it onto the ground without trying to kill myself.”
Zilisch earned his 13th career victory in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and second of 2026. He won on the short track at Tennessee’s Bristol Motor Speedway on April 11.
He clipped the grass exiting the Bus Stop on lap 77 and knocked his car’s splitter back 4 or 5 inches, then brushed the wall on the exit of Turn 7.
Zilisch said it took about a lap for the splitter to clear itself, setting up his final run.
“There was about half a lap there where I thought we were completely done,” Zilisch said. “I looked in my mirror and thought Austin (Hill) was going to catch me. I knew those kinds of things can sometimes get better with time if you hit it on the curb enough. I just kind of drove into the Bus Stop on the next lap and smoked the curb as hard as I could just trying to get it to clear itself, which it did.”
Love, a full-time driver in the O’Reilly Series, took over the lead on lap 64 when Raiah Caruth pitted. Love was trying to balance holding off Zilisch while being instructed to conserve fuel. He received clearance to go all-out over the final laps.
The disappointment was evident as an emotional Love was interviewed shortly after exiting his car.
“When you really nickel and dime it, there’s 100 little small mistakes that let him get close,” Love said. “At the end of the day the glaring piece of it is I had a bad corner.”
Love said it was a challenging but good experience saving fuel on a road course for the first time.
“All I want to do is beat Connor here,” Love said. “We’re best friends and we’ve caused each other a lot of pain.
“I didn’t execute when I needed to. I think the reason I’m so quiet is I’m just embarrassed. As a driver you can’t make those mistakes. It was such a bad mistake it’s just embarrassing. I know that I’ll learn from this and be better because of it, but I let down a lot of people, including myself, most importantly. Maybe it’s probably a good idea for me to feel this pain right now.”
Shane Van Gisbergen, who won the pole earlier in the day in his bid to repeat as winner of the track’s Cup Series race Sunday, clipped Zilisch’s car coming out of a pit stop on the race’s final stage. Van Gisbergen came back to lead, but the extra pit stop to deal with damage ended up costing him a chance for the win. He finished eighth while also driving for JR Motorsports.
Zilisch said he didn’t get to the outside lane soon enough, adding he felt bad about the incident and wasn’t entirely sure what happened. He described it as “poor timing.”
“That kind of ruined our day, but got back to eighth, which is respectable,” Van Gisbergen said. “But obviously wanted to fight for something better.”
Mission 200 at The Glen results
1. (started 17) Connor Zilisch (i), Chevrolet, 82.
2. (8) Jesse Love, Chevrolet, 82.
3. (25) Taylor Gray, Toyota, 82.
4. (29) Ross Chastain(i), Chevrolet, 82.
5. (7) Brandon Jones, Toyota, 82.
6. (4) Brent Crews #, Toyota, 82.
7. (6) Parker Retzlaff, Chevrolet, 82.
8. (12) Shane Van Gisbergen(i), Chevrolet, 82.
9. (35) Austin Green, Chevrolet, 82.
10. (2) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 82.
11. (9) Austin Hill, Chevrolet, 82.
12. (1) Rajah Caruth, Chevrolet, 82.
13. (5) Sam Mayer, Chevrolet, 82.
14. (34) Carson Kvapil, Chevrolet, 82.
15. (27) Corey Day, Chevrolet, 82.
16. (10) Sammy Smith, Chevrolet, 82.
17. (22) Harrison Burton, Toyota, 82.
18. (18) Brennan Poole, Chevrolet, 82.
19. (30) Alex Labbe, Chevrolet, 82.
20. (36) Will Rodgers, Chevrolet, 82.
21. (38) Preston Pardus, Chevrolet, 82.
22. (26) Josh Bilicki, Chevrolet, 82.
23. (13) Ryan Sieg, Chevrolet, 82.
24. (15) Anthony Alfredo, Chevrolet, 82.
25. (23) Jeb Burton, Chevrolet, 82.
26. (24) Blaine Perkins, Chevrolet, Out of Fuel, 81.
27. (20) Lavar Scott #, Chevrolet, Out of Fuel, 81.
28. (21) Alex Guenette, Chevrolet, 81.
29. (3) Sheldon Creed, Chevrolet, 81.
30. (32) Glen Reen, Toyota, 81.
31. (33) Kyle Sieg, Chevrolet, 81.
32. (31) Derek White, Chevrolet, 78.
33. (11) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 74.
34. (28) Ryan Ellis, Chevrolet, Suspension, 72.
35. (16) Dean Thompson, Toyota, Transmission, 54.
36. (14) William Sawalich, Toyota, Engine, 15.
37. (37) Matt Wilson, Chevrolet, Accident, 5.
38. (19) Patrick Staropoli #, Chevrolet, Engine, 4.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 92.64 mph.
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 10 Mins, 7 Secs.
Margin of Victory: .262 Seconds.
This article originally appeared on Elmira Star-Gazette: Zilisch soars to last-lap triumph in Mission 200 at The Glen
Reporting by Andrew Legare, Elmira Star-Gazette / Elmira Star-Gazette
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
