Zilisch Sees ARCA East Title Slip Away After Stunning Crash

Connor Zilisch lost the ARCA Menards Series East title after a crash Thursday at Bristol Motor Speedway. (Jacob Seelman photo)

BRISTOL, Tenn. – Connor Zilisch saw his ARCA Menards Series East championship hopes, which seemed nearly bulletproof after he started on the pole at Bristol Motor Speedway, shatter in heartbreaking fashion Thursday evening.

Zilisch led 22 laps early and appeared to be playing a cat-and-mouse game at the front of the field with title rival William Sawalich, as the duo traded the top spot three times among one another in the first 40 laps.

Though Sawalich was the leader past the one-quarter mark of the Bush’s Best 200, Zilisch was stalking him in second when a lap-64 scuffle between Logan Misuraca and Amber Balcaen led to Misuraca spinning and tagging the outside wall in turns three and four.

As she began to slide down the banking, Zilisch was coming at speed with nowhere to go, and sheared the right-rear sheet metal off his No. 28 Silver Hare Racing Chevrolet when it slammed into the rear of Misuraca’s car.

The heavy damage was enough to end Zilisch’s day. He ended up finishing 26th and saw the 16-point advantage over Sawalich that he came into Bristol with evaporate in a heartbeat.

Sawalich ultimately won the race to clinch his second straight ARCA East championship by 13 points over Zilisch, who could only shrug his shoulders and wonder what could have been after being checked and released from the infield care center.

“I hate to say it, but that’s the story of ARCA racing. I knew if I lost this championship, it’d be because of a lap car,” said a disappointed Zilisch. “Hate to end the season like that. It’s a frustrating, frustrating way to go out.

“We’ve had such a good year with Pinnacle Racing Group and everyone on the No. 28 team,” Zilisch added. “There’s nothing to hang our heads about over one [bad] race, but it sure is frustrating to see it end this way.”

Asked if he had enough warning to do anything differently before Misuraca’s stranded car was in his lap, Zilisch simply shook his head.

“[There was] nothing I could have done,” he lamented. “My spotter was saying ‘Go low,’ so I went low and she just came down the track in my path.”

Zilisch won four of the eight ARCA East races this season, including three races that were combination shows with the national ARCA Menards Series, just as Thursday’s Bristol event was.

Entering the concrete high banks, the 18-year-old had never finished worse than second in his six ARCA national appearances, with five wins in those half-dozen starts.

Bristol marked the first true trouble spot of Zilisch’s entire stock car career to date, and it was “simply unfortunate” that it happened at the worst possible moment.

“The wreck we got caught in was for 10th in an ARCA race,” Zilisch noted. “You’ve really got to wreck someone for 10th in an ARCA race? But that’s how it goes sometimes. Like I said earlier, we’ve got nothing to hang our heads over. Just have to keep our heads up.

“There’s a lot of big things ahead for me, so I can’t linger on this one for too long.”

Looking ahead, Zilisch will move to the NASCAR Xfinity Series full time in 2025 with JR Motorsports for his first run at a championship in one of NASCAR’s three national series.

But just because his future prospects are bright doesn’t mean losing his first shot at a stock car title didn’t still sting for the talented teenager.

“It sucks, I won’t lie,” he said, a wry smile on his face. “But we’re going to push forward from here and go do some great things at a higher level.”