CONCORD, N.C. — It was another routine victory for NASCAR Xfinity Series rookie phenom Connor Zilisch, who hit double digits with his 10th win of the season.
Behind Zilisch, it was a chaotic scramble for the remaining five berths in the Round of 8 of the series playoffs.
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It was a banner day for JR Motorsports, which needed an unlikely stroke of good fortune to get all four of its drivers into the Round of 8 — and got it.
It was a study in heartbreak for hard-luck Taylor Gray, who lost his bid to advance to the next playoff round by one point.
For the record, after leading practice and winning his eighth pole position of the season, Zilisch led 61 of 68 laps and collected the victory when NASCAR called the sixth caution for oil on the track after Zilisch had taken the white flag.
The win was the 10th of the season for the 19-year-old driver of the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, his first on the 2.28-mile circuit and the 11th of his career.
“It‘s so much fun getting to race in my hometown,” Zilisch said. “The JR Motorsports cars were so fast this weekend … It feels really good to get 10. Double digits is pretty awesome for my first year in the series.
“Now we‘ve got to go win the championship.”
By the time Zilisch took the checkered flag under yellow, Harrison Burton, Nick Sanchez and Austin Hill had, for practical purposes, lost their respective chances to advance in the playoffs thanks to self-inflicted wounds.
But the battle for the final berth in the Round of 8 hung in the balance until the moment of caution on Lap 68. That Smith was even in the running for the final berth was the product of a series of remarkable circumstances that began when he brought his No. 8 JRM Chevrolet to pit road with a cut tire on Lap 63.
Almost immediately thereafter, Sage Karam wrecked on the frontstretch to cause the fifth caution, erasing Zilisch‘s 10.987-second lead and giving Smith the chance to exit pit road with fresh tires.
Zilisch stayed out under caution, but a sizable number of drivers pitted behind him — enough to put Smith in seventh, one spot behind Gray, for the overtime restart at Lap 67.
Smith made immediate progress from the drop of the green flag and climbed to third at the finish, but Gray, tangled up in traffic, dropped to 13th in overtime, just enough to hand Smith the chance to advance by one point after a lengthy review by the sanctioning body.
“I‘m proud of everyone at JRM and everyone on my team,” Smith said. “(Crew chief) Phillip Bell made a great call to pit, obviously. It was a Hail Mary move, and it worked.
“I‘m just excited to go try to race for a championship and put ourselves in position to make the final four.”
Gray was in position to advance but for the caution called for Karam‘s accident.
“Just obviously bummed out,” Gray said. “We don‘t get to go racing for a championship at the end of the year. Just weren‘t good enough. We weren‘t good enough today.
“We didn‘t have a good Bristol, and we shouldn‘t have to even be in this spot. We are, though, and we are going to take our loss and move on to the next four and try to win us a couple of races.”
The drama of the playoffs all but obscured a career-best runner-up finish by Austin Green, who stayed out with Zilisch for the overtime restart. Non-playoff drivers Kaz Grala, Connor Mosack, Jeb Burton and William Sawalich secured positions four through seven.
Defending series champion Justin Allgaier was eighth, with Sanchez finishing ninth.
Two pit road penalties had already dimmed Sanchez‘s hopes of advancing. Burton lost six laps in the garage with fuel pressure issues. Hill was competitive for the final Round of 8 berth until Lap 50, when he reported engine issues (a dropped cylinder) that relegated him to 28th at the finish, 21 points short of a trip to the next round.
Carson Kvapil joined Zilisch, Allgaier and Smith as JR Motorsports entries in the Round of 8 — but not by much. Kvapil survived the chaos of the final restart to finish 15th and advance by three points over Gray.
Sheldon Creed (11th), Jesse Love (12th) and Sam Mayer (19th) all made the Round of 8 on points. Zilisch, Allgaier and Brandon Jones had all already clinched their spots, the former two by points and Jones by virtue of a Kansas win last weekend.
The Xfinity Series Round of 8 begins at Las Vegas Motor Speedway next Saturday (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
NOTE: Inspection was completed in the Xfinity Series garage with no issues, confirming Zilisch as the winner. No cars are going back to the NASCAR R&D Center in Concord, North Carolina for further inspection.
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