Once you’ve lastly made it to both the NASCAR Cup or Xfinity Sequence, you may’t wait to realize your “firsts.” This contains your first win (if you happen to’re fortunate sufficient), your first pole (once more, if you happen to’re fortunate sufficient), and the type of “first” that you just dread, however which is nearly inevitable: particularly, your first huge crash, if you happen to’re not fortunate sufficient to keep away from it.
To this point this season within the Xfinity Sequence, Connor Zilisch has checked off all these containers. He has three wins, 4 poles, and has been concerned in three wrecks. The primary two got here at Daytona and Atlanta to begin the season, adopted by his worst and most painful wreck but at Talladega within the Ag-Professional 300.
Zilisch was main on the ultimate lap when he was concerned in that wreck. It was so dangerous that he not solely suffered important accidents, he additionally was compelled to overlook the following race at Texas Motor Speedway. Zilisch joined Corey LaJoie and Ryan Flores on this week’s version of the Stacking Pennies podcast and mirrored on that darkish Saturday this previous April.
However there’s an irony in what Zilisch known as the toughest crash he’s ever had. For the reason that ‘Dega debacle, his JR Motorsports crew has been on a monstrous roll ahead. Within the seven races since, he’s completed so as: 2nd, 2nd, fifth, 1st, 4th, 2nd and 1st.
“We’ve been on a run,” Zilisch stated. “It (the again damage) sucked for about two weeks and I nonetheless get pains now and again, however more often than not it’s good.”
The ‘Dega wreck was the primary time in Zilisch’s profession that he suffered any sort of lingering damage. Admittedly, he might have been harm worse, however that wreck was dangerous sufficient. “It was a bizarre feeling,” Zilisch stated. “I had by no means gotten the wind knocked out of me even in a race automobile.”
After attempting to keep away from but nonetheless making contact with finest good friend Jesse Love, Zilisch hit the skin wall laborious. He stated, “It (the ache) was fast, like, as quickly as I hit the wall. This sounds loopy, however once I was within the automobile, once I hit the wall, I closed my eyes and I used to be within my very own physique and I noticed my again shatter.
“Prefer it was the weirdest. It sounds loopy however I swear once I hit the wall, like I noticed one thing, and I instantly knew. I used to be like, ‘One thing ain’t proper,’ and I went to the care heart they usually cleared me after which it was not good.”
Zilisch admits feeling awkward in Victory Lane at Texas
Zilisch wound up lacking the Texas race as a competitor, however he nonetheless made the journey as an observer. Then, when fill-in driver Kyle Larson gained the race, Zilisch skilled one other uneasy feeling, however a bit completely different from the primary couple of minutes after his wreck at Talladega.
He stated, “Going to Victory Lane was essentially the most awkward factor in my life and I used to be like, ‘I by no means need to have to do that once more.’ I went to Victory Lane and I’m like, ‘The place do I stand? Do I stroll away now? Do I stand right here? I don’t play any half on this.’ … This sucks.”
And up to now, knock on wooden, Zilisch hasn’t needed to undergo that once more.
