INDIANAPOLIS — Talk about a quick study.
No NASCAR Xfinity Series driver comes to Indianapolis Motor Speedway with more momentum than Connor Zilisch, who won his series-best fourth race of the season and fifth of his young career in last Saturday’s rain-shortened event at Dover Motor Speedway.
Fresh from consecutive victories at Sonoma Raceway and Dover, Zilisch will try for a third straight win in Saturday’s Pennzoil 250 on the historic 2.5-mile oval.
All five of Zilisch’s victories have come in his series debuts at the respective tracks, dating to his first Xfinity start last year at Watkins Glen International.
In addition, with his win at Dover, Zilisch trimmed the series lead of JR Motorsports teammate and reigning series champion Justin Allgaier to 56 points with six races left in the regular season.
Zilisch, who turned 19 on Tuesday, believes the regular-season crown might be difficult to attain.
“Fifty-six points is a lot, especially when you’re racing against Justin Allgaier,” Zilisch said. “It’s going to be hard to make that up with him being the points leader, but I would never say never. He would need to have very bad luck, and I would need to continue this crazy streak that I’m on.”
That streak includes wins in three of the last five races, eight consecutive top-five finishes (with three second-place runs to go with the three wins) and an average result of 2.25 over those eight events.
