Connor Zilisch once again scored a road course win, with this one coming in spectacular come-from-behind fashion. After charging back through the field to overcome early adversity, Zilisch pulled away in the closing stages to win the Focused Health 250 at Circuit of the Americas.
After starting from the pole, Zilisch quickly built up a lengthy advantage over the field, as he pulled away by more than five seconds over Cup Series stars Ross Chastain and William Byron.
While Zilisch appeared to be on cruise control out front, he would soon encounter a major setback. As Zilisch prepared to pit towards the end of stage 1 in order to flip the stage and position himself better for the start of stage 2, an ill-timed caution for the stalled car of Baltazar Leguizamón caused pit road to close just as Zilisch entered, resulting in a penalty for the No. 88 team.
Byron was the benefactor of Zilisch’s misfortune as he collected the stage 1 win under caution while Zilisch was sent to the back.
After starting his day from the rear, Daytona winner Jesse Love methodically worked his way up the running order and took the lead towards the start of stage 2. Love was eventually overtaken by Riley Herbst, who then led before pitting prior to the stage end.
While many of the top contenders pitted to position themselves towards the front for the final stage, Harrison Burton ran long and collected the stage 2 win.
After early misfortune, Zilisch quietly marched back towards the front while keeping his car clean to be back in contention at the start of stage 3. Lined up third behind JRM teammate Carson Kvapil on the restart to open the final stage, Zilisch forced himself and Kvapil wide into turn 1, allowing Austin Hill to slip past into the lead.
Off the final corner on that same lap, Zilisch made hard contact with Corey Heim, sending Heim spinning and causing noticeable damage to the right front of Zilisch’s WeatherTech machine.
While Heim’s spin saw his chances of victory squandered, it appeared Zilisch’s damage may have the same implication, but Zilisch remained in contention while teammate Kvapil began to real in leader Hill.
With 10 laps to go, Hill slipped on entry to turn 12, allowing the closing Kvapil and Zilisch to get by. After disposing of Hill, the young JRM teammates broke away to decide the race between themselves.
With 9 laps remaining, Zilisch completed his charge all the way back to the lead as he got around his teammate. While Kvapil continued to challenge Zilisch for several more laps, the No. 88 proved too strong, and Kvapil would unfortunately fall out of the battle for the lead after cutting a tire with 2 laps remaining.
After overcoming a series of setbacks and fending off several challenges, Zilisch secured the victory to complete an impressive comeback story.
Byron ended his solid day as the runner-up, while Sam Mayer turned in another stout performance resulting in a third-place finish. Hill came home fourth, while Christian Eckes rounded out the top five finishers.
Love completed an impressive charge from the rear with a sixth-place finish, followed by Taylor Gray in seventh, Chastain in eighth, William Sawalich in ninth, and Blaine Perkins came home 10th.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series will return to action next Saturday, March 8, from Phoenix Raceway with coverage on The CW starting at 5 p.m. ET.
