Zilisch claims more Xfinity history amidst Hill/Almirola blowup

Connor Zilisch will ultimately have a short stay with JR Motorsports in the NASCAR Xfinity Series before (presumably) joining Trackhouse Racing in the Cup Series next year but he is making his layover awfully sweet.

Zilisch has now won three races in a row, and four overall, after his triumph in the Pennzoil 400 on Saturday at venerable Indianapolis Motor Speedway on a day where there were some theatrics deeper in the field.

Again, the 19-year-old will start his Cup Series career next year by every subtle account in the garage. The Rolex 24 winner is only racing for JR Motorsports in the Xfinity Series this year because he is on loan from Trackhouse while the team with his rights found a spot for him at the highest level.

And Earnhardt has heaped nothing but the highest praise on Zilisch after taking the organization to its 100th win.

“He has the potential to do incredible, incredible Hall of Fame worthy things,” Earnhardt said.

And he said it with no ounce of hyperbole either.

And so for now, all Zilisch can do is try to keep working towards the Cup Series and then match those expectations to the best of his ability once he gets there.

I feel like I have had a lot of people tell me ‘you’re breaking this record and this record,’ and it’s really cool, honestly,” Zilisch said. “I appreciate that I’m young enough to do that and that I’m able to do this, but my goals are much higher than what I’m doing on Saturdays.

“I want to be a Hall of Famer in the sport. I want to do great things. I want to leave the sport better than I found it. I still have a long journey ahead of me. To be the youngest driver to kiss the bricks here is a cool feeling but I have a lot of dreams and goals I want to achieve and this is just a fraction of them.”

With all of this said, this was not the most straightforward of wins as Justin Allgaier and Kyle Larson also seemed like likely challengers who also tangled together racing for the lead on a restart with 14 laps to go.

Contact between @J_Allgaier and @KyleLarsonRacin opens the door for @ConnorZilisch to move into the lead 😱😱😱

Get to The CW for the finish!!! pic.twitter.com/k6JJSLn8z3

— The CW Sports (@TheCW_Sports) July 26, 2025

This is how Zilisch retook the lead in the first place. 

Allgaier said he wanted to see more information and know more before addressing the crash itself.

“I’m just disappointed because this team, we came here last year and we were not as good as we wanted to be,” Allgaier said. “Jim Pohlman and this 7 team, we worked tirelessly to make sure we had a car that could win this race.”

Larson was left apologetic.

“I wish I would have gotten clear there off of (Turn) 1,” said Larson while watching a replay. “He [Allgaier] didn’t really pack air too much on my door there. I just got enough and got just a little bit loose. My angle was bad as I was trying to shortcut the entry, and then I was kind of along for the ride. Tried to bail quickly and just caught his left rear, and wrecked him. I hate that.

“You never want to do that to somebody racing full-time like that, so I wish I could have done some things different. Honestly, I don’t really know what I could have done right there other than to maybe help my angle into (Turn) 2 a little bit. Again, sorry to Justin and the #7 team.”

The next restart garnered the most headlines.

Racing inside the top-five on the next restart, Aric Almirola tagged the Austin Hill rear bumper into Turn 3. Hill saved his car from a slide but then drove down into the Almirola right rear, crashing both drivers out of the race.

“It was definitely intentional,” Almirola told The CW. “He (Hill) blocked me three times. I finally got him loose in (Turn) 3. He had damage on the nose, so he was really slow in the corners. It was time to go. I mean we’re coming to nine to go and the leaders are starting to put a gap on us, so it’s time to go.

“I got him loose and he just turned left and hooked me in the right rear.”

The yellow flag is out at @IMS following this incident involving multiple cars.@Aric_Almirola exited the No. 19 under his own power. pic.twitter.com/tOaYGsLFJw

— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) July 26, 2025

Hill did immediately radio that the crash was not intentional but NASCAR disagreed and parked him five laps resulting in an aggressive response from the driver as he again keyed up his microphone.

If NASCAR opts to suspend Hill this coming week, it would also cost him all the playoff points he has earned this season once the final championship run begins in September.

“That was violent, to be totally honest,” Almirola said. “That’s one of the hardest hits I’ve taken in my NASCAR career. The impact felt very similar to when I broke my back. I’d be very interested to see the black-box data from that crash, but it was vicious and that’s just uncalled for.”

When asked by The Atheltic and NBC Sports if Hill should be suspended, team owner Richard Childress pushed back aggressively.

“Hell no,” Childress said. “They didn’t do a damn thing to the 2 car (Austin Cindric) when he wrecked Ty (Dillon) and admitted to it — drove him in the right rear and wrecked him at (Circuit of the Americas). It’s who you are. We’re a blue-collar team. They give us trouble all the time.”

Childress’ other grandson, Austin Dillon, was stripped of a playoff berth last year when he wrecked both Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin on the final corner at Richmond Raceway.

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