By David Morgan, Associate Editor
SPEEDWAY, Ind. – In the lone NASCAR Xfinity Series practice of the weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, it was a familiar face at the top of the timing sheet when the session reached its conclusion.
Connor Zilisch, a four-time winner on the season in the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, moved to the top of the board after a brief rain delay to lead the field with a lap of 54.013 seconds, 166.627 mph in his first start on the famed 2.5-mile oval.
“It’s awesome. I’ve been here on the road course a couple of times, but running the oval is definitely a unique experience,” Zilisch said of his debut laps on the IMS oval. “It’s really cool. I grew up watching Indy 500s and it was such an iconic racetrack, so really cool to make my first laps on the oval and run across the bricks. It’s always a special feeling and even cool to have a fast car.
“So, excited for the race tomorrow. This package is definitely unique, having low horsepower and just different from what I’m used to, but it’ll be cool, I think.”
He would be followed by his teammates Carson Kvapil and Justin Allgaier in second and fourth, respectively, giving JRM three strong chances to win this weekend.
After Zilisch’s win a week ago at Dover, the team now sits at 99 career wins in the Xfinity Series with the century mark seemingly right around the corner for the team that currently sits at the top of the standings with 20 races completed on the season.
“It took me a while to settle in and just kind of find my place in the Xfinity Series and understand what I had to do to win races,” Zilisch added of his season thus far with JRM.
“You win one race or two races and then you understand, all right, I know how to do this and I understand what I need to do to win races, and I think it’s just learning that is the biggest thing. So yeah, I feel like we’re competitive every weekend now.
“I feel like we can win anywhere we go. Our cars are really fast right now. JR Motorsports has done an incredible job as of late and made all of the drivers’ lives much easier and a lot more fun.
“So yeah, I’m just excited for the rest of the season chasing a championship. We’re leading the playoff point race right now, so a lot of things going our way in the momentum category and it’s just important to keep that going.”
Former JRM driver Sam Mayer, who now drives for Haas Factory Team finished practice in third place. Kyle Larson rounded out the top-five in the session, having led the way prior to the rain delay and Zilisch’s mock qualifying run that dropped him down to fifth when all was said and done.
Taylor Gray put up the sixth-quickest time in practice, but Joe Gibbs Racing will have some repairs to do on his No. 54 Toyota after a spin late in the session in which he got out of shape and skirted the outside wall before looping his car around. The damage was minimal and he was able to drive it back to the garage to the attention of his crew.
The remainder of the top-10 drivers were Harrison Burton, Ryan Sieg, Austin Hill, and Nick Sanchez.
Next up for the Xfinity Series is qualifying at 1:00 pm ET, followed by the Pennzoil 250 at 4:30 pm ET. Qualifying will be televised on the CW app, with the 100-lap race on The CW.
Saturday’s race will mark six races remaining in the regular season before the top-12 in points are locked into the Playoffs with a chance at bringing home the championship at season’s end.
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