Connor Zilisch remained perfect at Watkins Glen thanks to a perfect last lap.
The JR Motorsports driver won the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Mission 200 At The Glen for the third year running to maintain his perfect record at the track.
Zilisch was 18 seconds behind his best friend Jesse Love after pitting with 25 laps to go and went to work reeling in Love, who was saving fuel.
He got within about two seconds with six laps to go when he slammed into the dirt exiting the chicane and damaged the front right corner of his car, causing the tire to rub and smoke. He appeared to have trouble with the next couple of turns, but adjusted and got back to the chase as the car held together.
They came to the white flag a second apart and Zilisch could be seen taking huge chunks out of the gap in every braking zone. He was on Love’s tail coming into Turn 6, when Love got loose and went wide, allowing Zilisch to make a move to the inside on the final turn and win the drag race to the checkered flag.
“At the end of the day, the glaring piece of it is I had a bad corner. It was definitely a challenging but good experience for me. I’ve never saved fuel on a road course. What a good mental challenge for me,” Love said after the race.
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“I didn’t execute when I needed to. I think the reason I’m so quiet is I’m just embarrassed, right? As a driver, you just can’t make those mistakes.”
Taylor Gray, Ross Chastain and Brandon Jones rounded out the top five. The result was good enough for Love to maintain his third place spot in the season standings after 13 races behind points leader Justin Allgaier and Sheldon Creed.
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