By Luis Torres, Staff Writer/Photographer
PORTLAND – The ‘Summer of Zilisch’ continues to wreak havoc in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
Connor Zilisch’s first visit to Portland International Raceway proved to be a nearly perfect day, leading 70 out of the race-extending 78 laps to score his eighth win of the season in Saturday’s Pacific Office Automation 147.
It marked the second time this season Zilisch scored a three-peat. Now, he’s been victorious in six out of the last seven races and have taken command of the regular season championship lead over Justin Allgaier by 20 points heading into World Wide Technology Raceway.
“It was a pretty crazy race. I felt like we had a dominant car all day long. All of a sudden, it turned into a bit of a mess on those late race restarts,” said Zilisch. “I’m just glad we were able to come out on top and get ourselves a win in what was very deserving for us. It would’ve been unfortunate to not win that one.”
Perhaps more importantly than winning the series’ swan song in Oregon, Zilisch safely celebrated in victory lane with his No. 88 JR Motorsports crew. No collarbone injury while celebrating at Watkins Glen nor needing Parker Kligerman to relief him mid-race at Daytona.
Safe to say, Zilisch has been riding a high this summer and now has a chance to rack an additional 15 playoff points should he leave Gateway as the regular season champion.
“It’s pretty awesome. I didn’t expect to win this many races come November and to have eight wins at this point of the year is pretty spectacular,” Zilisch on his summer dominance.
“It’s been really cool this entire summer. We’ve been dominant everywhere we’ve gone and have a chance to win at almost every race. It’s just been up to me to execute and get the job done.”
It was lights out on the competition as each stage imposed a question to the other 36 competitors at Portland, what will it take to dethrone the dominant 19-year-old?
Austin Hill initially answered the daring question during the final stage restart when he took off better than Zilisch and snapped racing perfection.
Then Zilisch had help from his teammate Allgaier, sending him off the chicane before merging back onto the 1.97-mile road course.
Cautions breed cautions, Zilisch would get even with Hill on the restart department, but even that became cathartic. Hill assured he wasn’t going to let the rookie beat him on the restart and it led to a pack of cars fighting to get to the chicane first.
Zilisch cleared the pack with some help from William Sawalich and it appeared the final two laps would be smooth sailing. It wasn’t the case as Zilisch’s car locked up and blew the chicane.
However, Zilisch’s blunder coincided with Nick Sanchez colliding into Sammy Smith, sending him around. This allowed Zilisch time to blend in safely without any penalties and entered Turn 4 with the lead which he held off Sawalich by 1.572 seconds.
Zilisch explained that the right rear damage came from Sawalich which created an ill-handling Chevrolet on restarts.
“It was hectic. Late race restarts when you’re the dominant car are never fun. I’m just glad to make it work at the end,” said Zilisch. “I wish I didn’t have to use the runoff like that. I had a lot of damage and struggled for grip to fire off a little bit.
“Without damage, it would’ve been a little bit easier, but when the No. 18 (Sawalich) hit me, it really gave me a lot of damage on the right rear and it certainly didn’t help us.”
Zilisch’s shoulder from Watkins Glen did amplify with the demanding circuit, which he described as similar to the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, another venue not returning in 2026.
Rather than pain, it’s discomfort in large part of having a seven-inch scar but confirmed no further attention will be necessary going forward. Just as long he doesn’t hurt himself again.
“I felt it at practice a little bit. I feel it right now and it’s definitely going to be a little sore tomorrow. It’s not the bone, but the incision itself. I certainly feel it when I’m in the car, but I made myself safe in the car. By no means, it was comfortable.”
Behind Zilisch and Sawalich were Christian Eckes, Hill, Carson Kvapil, Jeb Burton, Austin Green, Blaine Perkins and Jesse Love to round out the top-10.
There’s only one regular season race left in the Xfinity Series with the division making a stop in Madison, Illinois for the first time since 2010. Coverage begins Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET on CW.
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