Connor Zilisch puts NASCAR world on notice with Pocono win

LONG POND, Pennsylvania — You wouldn't know that Saturday was 18-year-old Connor Zilisch's first time turning laps at Pocono Raceway. 

NASCAR's most impressive prospect was third in Saturday's practice session after turning his first laps at the 2.5-mile "Tricky Triangle." When tasked with putting together a qualifying lap around one of the toughest tracks on the circuit, Zilisch put himself ninth on the grid for Saturday's 250-miler. 

But it was in Saturday's race that Zilisch truly put the rest of the NASCAR world on notice. Zilisch took the lead late in Stage 2, and after winning the stage, played strategy to perfection with the help of interim crew chief Dale Earnhardt Jr. 

When a perfectly timed Lap 71 caution came out, Zilisch was there to take advantage. Even after a less-than-stellar restart on Lap 76, Zilisch stayed in the mix, and when Justin Allgaier and Chase Elliott tangled on Lap 88, Zilisch pounced. 

While Jesse Love inherited the race lead immediately after Elliott and Allgaier fell out of contention, Zilisch was in position to take the lead if he could get a strong restart. 

That's exactly what the Xfinity Series rookie did, and when he caught Love with just four laps to go, he passed his best friend and drove away into the Pennsylvania sunset, scoring his second win of 2025 and his first Xfinity Series win on a non-road course. 

If any of Zilisch's performances should put the garage on notice, it was this one. 

"Connor is a young man going on 35," Earnhardt Jr. said after the race. "He's got tons of maturity." 

That maturity was present when Zilisch was asked about what went into his preparation for his Pocono debut. 

"There's a lot that goes on behind the scenes," Zilisch said. "I've done a lot to prepare myself for this. I never feel like I show up to a racetrack and I'm like, 'man, I'm nervous. I don't know what I'm going to do.' I always have a plan showing up to a new racetrack. I showed that today. I went out for practice and I was third on the first lap never seeing the place before."

"It's not easy to do that. I was going wide open down into (turn) 1, and I was like, 'wow, this is fast.' You kind of just have to trust the simulator and trust your notes and what you've seen and watched. I try to give myself an idea of what I'm going to see when I get to the racetrack without having to overthink about it." 

Without his normal crew chief, Zilisch also managed to survive a race that has been none too kind to better drivers than him. That included a plethora of wild restarts and intricate strategy. 

"I've folded more times than I've been able to count this year, so I wouldn't say I'm perfect," Zilisch said. "It's just a matter of preparing and not letting any situation be too big. Those restarts can be chaotic and nerve-wracking, especially when you're up there at the front racing for a win. But I treat any race the same - I run my next best corner and hope that what I do works out for me. Sometimes it doesn't and sometimes it does. Today, it worked out."

All quotations obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.