Three Straight For Zilisch, 100 For JR Motorsports

INDIANAPOLIS — Connor Zilisch gave himself a late birthday present and a special gift to team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. by winning the Pennzoil 250 NASCAR Xfinity Series race Saturday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Xfinity Series rookie sensation Zilisch, who turned 19 on Tuesday, passed fellow rookie Taylor Gray with two laps remaining in the No. 88 WeatherTech Chevrolet co-owned by Earnhardt and held off polesitter Sam Mayer’s No. 41 Audibel Ford by .339 of a second for his third consecutive victory and fifth win this season.

The win was the 100th in the history of JR Motorsports, co-owned by Earnhardt.

“This is awesome,” Zilisch said. “Those bricks look really kissable, and I’m ready to kiss them. Winning at Indy is awesome and getting 100 wins for JRM is pretty cool, too, so I consider this a pretty awesome day.”

Gray finished third in the No. 54 Operation 300 Toyota, followed by reigning Brickyard 400 winner Kyle Larson in the No. 17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet. Ryan Sieg rounded out the top five in the No. 39 Sci Aps Ford.

Zilisch led when the 100-lap race was halted due to rain for the second time during a caution period from Laps 92-96 after a crash between the No. 21 Bennett Transportation Chevrolet of Austin Hill and the No. 19 Young Life Toyota of Aric Almirola in Turn 4.

On the restart on Lap 97, Gray got a big jump and an aerodynamic push from behind to take the lead from Zilisch entering Turn 1. Zilisch then dove under Gray in Turn 2 on Lap 98 and pulled even on the back straightaway. But Gray was able to parry Zilisch’s charge and kept the lead.

Zilisch attempted the same move exiting Turn 2 on Lap 99, pulling even with Gray on the back straightaway. But unlike on the previous lap, Mayer tucked behind Zilisch’s rear bumper, which gave Zilisch the aerodynamic boost he needed to clear Gray for good entering Turn 3.

“The second time I got a push from behind, and it helped me clear him,” Zilisch said. “It was actually really racy, and you were able to make moves.”

Mayer also passed Gray but was unable to catch Zilisch over the last 1.5 laps around the fabled 2.5-mile oval.

Zilisch, who led 19 laps, rallied from a slow pit stop early in the race to return to the front. But it appeared late in the race that Justin Allgaier and Larson were the leading candidates to stand on Victory Podium.

But on a restart on Lap 87, Larson’s car pushed high in Turn 2 and hip-checked Allgaier’s No. 7 Hellmann’s Spicy Mayo Chevrolet into the SAFER Barrier, also slowing Larson’s momentum. That incident allowed Zilisch to take the lead, with Gray jumping to second.

2018 Pennzoil 250 winner Allgaier was eliminated from the race in the crash after leading a race-high 37 laps driving another car fielded by JR Motorsports.

“Unfortunately, Indianapolis is one of those places that it doesn’t take much to have an incident like that,” Allgaier said.

While this was the first win at IMS for Zilisch in his first oval race at the Racing Capital of the World, he has stood on the podium here in past road races. Zilisch finished third in the 90-car Spec Miata class in the 2021 SCCA Runoffs at IMS, and he was part of the Era Motorsport team that finished third in the LMP2 class at the 2024 IMSA TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks.