When the NASCAR Xfinity Series entry list for Daytona on Friday came out on Monday, it featured injured driver Connor Zilisch, but it’s still a ‘TBD’ if the 19-year-old top motorsports prospect is actually going to race.
Zilisch is a week removed from surgery for a broken collarbone suffered in a Victory Lane during a fall celebrating his Watkins Glen victory.
On one hand, conventional wisdom suggests that Zilisch could just take the next two regular season races off but he is also the championship leader and stands to have more playoff points for finishing first (15) or second (10) than for each position lower should he miss races.
Zilisch is on load from Trackhouse Racing to JR Motorsports for this one development year in Xfinity and team owner Justin Marks said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio that they are still mulling their options for Friday at Daytona.
“It’s a balance,” Marks said on the air. “It’s a balance between a 19-year-old kid who just wants to be in the race car and can’t stand not being in the race car and is capable of driving the race car right now. And the other side of that is we need to make a smart decision. What we can’t do is rush him back into the car, especially a place like Daytona, get in a wreck and then be worse off than we were before.
“So, it’s kind of a day-by-day deal right now. This will be a big week to see how his rehab goes and his comfort level and all that stuff. And it could end up being a game-time decision. I know that we all want him back in the race car. He wants to be back in the race car. JRM wants him to be back in the race car. But we’ve got to make smart decisions, so I would just say, stay tuned on that one.”
Another option could be for Zilisch to take the green flag and get out of the car so he could gain whatever points a backup driver delivers for him. But the worst case scenario would be for Zilisch to try to run the full race at Daytona, which contains several multi-car big crashes, and re-injure himself before the playoff run that could end in a championship.
