Connor Zilisch made NASCAR Xfinity Series history on Saturday by winning his second straight race at Watkins Glen International. The 19-year-old rookie dominated the Mission 200 at The Glen, leading 60 out of 82 laps to score his sixth victory of the season.

However, the celebration was cut short when Zilisch slipped and fell while climbing out of his No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet. Medical teams quickly arrived and took him to a local hospital for evaluation. He was released a few hours later with only a broken collarbone.

Zilisch’s sixth win puts him just one victory away from tying Christopher Bell’s rookie record of seven wins set in 2018. He beat Sam Mayer by 2.326 seconds in what turned out to be a crash-filled afternoon at the famous road course.

The race featured fierce competition between Zilisch and his JR Motorsports teammate Shane van Gisbergen, a former Australian SuperCar champion. The two drivers started on the front row and raced each other hard for most of the day.

With 16 laps to go, Zilisch and van Gisbergen made contact while racing for the lead. Zilisch inherited first place and immediately radioed his crew saying, “He spun off my nose. If I wrecked him, tell me.” His crew told him to “shake it off” and keep racing.

Van Gisbergen did not blame Zilisch for the contact. “Pretty gutted, really. Gutted for the JR Motorsports guys,” van Gisbergen said. “I haven’t seen it yet. Will watch it later and work it out.”

After the restart, Austin Hill briefly took the lead when his car tagged Zilisch going into turn one. But Zilisch quickly worked his way back to the front, passing Hill with just eight laps remaining.

Shortly after Zilisch regained the lead, a huge accident involving 16 cars brought out a 45-minute red flag. The crash was triggered when Hill’s car made contact with Michael McDowell’s car in the turns 5 and 6 section of the track.

McDowell, the 2021 Daytona 500 winner, took the hardest hit, sliding into walls on both sides of the track. Thankfully, he was not injured and even smiled when talking about the crash afterward.

“That was unfortunate and I just hate it for everybody at Kaulig Racing,” McDowell said. “We had a couple shots at it and was hoping to get to victory lane but that was unfortunate.”

With three races left before the playoffs begin, Zilisch continues to lead the championship standings. He now holds a seven-point advantage over his JR Motorsports teammate Justin Allgaier.

Harrison Burton finished 10th and is holding onto the important 12th place playoff position. He leads his cousin Jeb Burton by 30 points and Ryan Sieg by 38 points for the final playoff spot.

The top 10 finishers were: Connor Zilisch, Sam Mayer, Sammy Smith, Austin Hill, Carson Kvapil, Justin Allgaier, Austin Green, Christian Eckes, Brandon Jones, and Harrison Burton.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series takes a week off before returning to action on Friday, August 22nd at Daytona International Speedway. The Wawa 250 Powered by Coca-Cola starts at 7:30 p.m. ET on The CW network.

Ryan Truex won this race last year, but with Zilisch’s strong season and his teammate van Gisbergen also running the Cup Series race on Sunday at Watkins Glen, the championship battle is heating up as the playoffs approach.

Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images