Connor Zilisch Said ‘It Hurt So Good’ To Win The Portland NASCAR Xfinity Series Race
Connor Zilisch is officially in the NASCAR record books.
The 19-year-old JR Motorsports driver won the Pacific Office Automation 147 at Portland International Raceway to pick up his eighth win of the season and move ahead of Christopher Bell with the most wins as a rookie in the Xfinity Series.
Zilisch started from pole, set the fastest lap and swept both stages on his way to victory, but it almost fell apart for him near the end.
During a restart with seven laps to go, Austin Hill pulled ahead of Zilisch heading into Turn One, when Zilisch was hit from behind and forced to cut the chicane and drive through the barriers set up for cars to negotiate if they miss Turn Two.
Read Also: NASCAR DRIVER JUMPS OUT OF HIS CAR AS HIS FEET ARE ENGULFED IN FLAMES
Hill took the lead and Zilisch was tracking him down when another yellow came with four laps to go. That led to an overtime finish that saw Zilisch lock up his tires and miss the chicane again, but with several cars spinning behind him, he was able to come through the barriers with the lead and drive away to the checkered flag.
Zilisch was driving with a still-healing broken collarbone suffered when he fell off of his car celebrating a win at Watkins Glen and said during his post-race interview on The CW that he was in pain during the race, but that “it hurt so good” to win.
He wasn’t directly quoting John Mellencamp’s song, but Dale Earnhardt, who said the same thing after racing at Watkins Glen with a broken collarbone in 1996.
SUBSCRIBE TO THE FREE AMERICAN CARS AND RACING NEWSLETTER FOR MORE NASCAR NEWS
It was the second time this season that Zilisch won three races in a row, but he got an assist with this latest trio. Last week at Daytona he got out of the car early in the race to avoid getting in a big wreck that might reinjure his collarbone and substitute driver Parker Kligerman finished with a win.
The race marked NASCAR’s last visit to the Pacific Northwest for the time being as Portland has been dropped from the 2026 Xfinity Series schedule and it’s not clear when or if NASCAR will return to the track or the region.