CUP: Post-race injury forces Connor Zilisch’s withdrawal from Sunday’s Cup race at Watkins Glen

Written By Brock Beard

by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief

PHOTO: Sean Gardner, Getty Images

Connor Zilisch picked up the 2nd last-place finish of his NASCAR Cup Series career in Sunday’s Go Bowling at the Glen at Watkins Glen International when his #87 Red Bull Chevrolet did not start the race.

The finish, which came in what would have been his fourth series start, was his second of the season and first in a Cup race since March 2nd at the Circuit of the Americas, 21 races ago. In the Cup Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 36th from a “did not start,” the 37th for the #87, and the 876th for Chevrolet. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 44th by a “did not start,” the 56th for the #87, and the 2,007th for Chevrolet.

Kyle Larson picked up the 11th last-place finish of his NASCAR Cup Series career in Sunday’s Go Bowling at the Glen at Watkins Glen International when his #5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet finished under power, completing 75 of 90 laps.

The finish, which came in Larson’s 390th series start, was his first of the season and first in a Cup Series race since August 27, 2022 at Daytona, 106 races ago. In the Cup Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 24th for the #5, the 44th from a car still under power, and the 876th for Chevrolet. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 42nd for the #5, the 59th for a car still running, and the 2,007th for Chevrolet.

I. BACKGROUND

It was at this same Watkins Glen track one year ago that a 17-year-old Zilisch stunned everyone by winning from the pole in his XFINITY Series debut. He’d already nearly done the same in the Truck Series earlier that year at COTA, where he won the pole and finished 4th after a first-lap, first corner mistake, and also earned five wins in ARCA. All this launched Zilisch into his first full-time XFINITY Series season this year, where he came back to The Glen with five more wins – four of which after recovering from a back injury suffered in a last-lap crash while leading at Talladega.

This year at The Glen, Zilisch prepared to attempt a triple-header weekend between NASCAR’s three top series. While Sunday’s race had already been added as his last scheduled Cup start for 2025, he just last week earned a Truck Series ride with Niece Motorsports in the #45 Chevrolet. Niece released driver Kaden Honeycutt upon learning he’d signed with another OEM rumored to be Toyota factory team TRICON Garage. Zilisch’s first Truck start of the year saw him qualify 14th and recover from a pit road penalty to finish 8th.

This left both the XFINITY and Cup Series action, which began on Saturday. On the XFINITY side, Zilisch’s #88 Registix Chevrolet ran fastest in practice by 0.716 second and earned the pole with a speed of 70.884 seconds (124.429mph), besting Sunday’s eventual race winner Shane van Gisbergen by 0.562 second. On the Cup side – where his was one of 40 entrants for as many spots – he ran 7th-fastest in practice with a best lap of 72.865 seconds (121.061mph), but this time struggled in qualifying, earning just 25th on the grid with a lap of 72.603 seconds (121.483mph).

In the XFINITY race, Zilisch got the jump on Van Gisbergen at the start, and the two battled for much of the afternoon. On Lap 64, Zilisch was trailing Van Gisbergen while also trying to fend off 3rd-place Austin Hill. Entering Turn 11, the track’s final right-hander, Zilisch ran wide, then tried to slot in behind Van Gisbergen. He misjudged it, and ended up spinning Van Gisbergen into the outside wall and out of the race. Zilisch took the lead, then retook it twice more, staying out front for 13 of the 18 laps after the incident – 60 out of the race’s 82 total laps – to beat Sam Mayer to the checkered flag by 2.326 seconds.

After celebrating on the frontstretch, Zilisch pulled into victory lane and stood on the side of his car, his left foot on the window’s frame rail and right foot on the roof. Then, an instant later, Zilisch’s left foot slipped, then hooked on the window, sending the driver falling hard onto his right side. Medical crews were quick to the scene, where it was reported he was conscious and talking to them. He was transported by backboard to a waiting ambulance to a nearby hospital. After several tense moments, Zilisch tweeted a CT scan of his head came out clear, but he’d broken his collarbone. This would put him out of Sunday’s race. As of this writing, the schedule for his return to the XFINITY Series is still to be determined.

In its history of sponsoring drivers in the Cup Series, sponsor Red Bull has sometimes seen drivers other than their full-timers take the wheel. In 2010, when medications used to treat blood clots put Brian Vickers out of his ride, the Red Bull hired their DTM driver Mattias Ekstrom to make a couple starts. But it was also reported that Red Bull didn’t want to put an unaffiliated driver in their car for this weekend. So, the decision was made late Saturday to withdraw Zilisch’s #87.

II. SCORING A “DID NOT START” AS A LAST-PLACE FINISH

Historically, how a team’s withdrawal from a race is scored has depended on whether the car has earned a qualifying spot in the race. If the team withdrew before qualifying, the car is simply listed as among the teams that failed to qualify, though with a “WD” indicating “withdrawal.” If the team withdrew after qualifying, the car is still credited with a last-place finish. Interestingly, NASCAR has not used “withdrawal” as the reason out – the two examples among last-place finishers each took the green flag and even completed laps. Also, such reasons listed as “injury” or “driver ill” referred to issues that arose after the driver took the green flag.

Instead, the chosen reason for a post-qualifying withdrawal seems to be “did not start,” which has an equally broad definition. Most often, it indicates a car was on the grid, but failed to take the green flag, most often due to a mechanical issue. But it can also pertain to the driver. For example, in July 1990, USAC Sprint Car star Rich Vogler qualified the #50 Coors Light Chevrolet 32nd on the 40-car grid for the AC Spark Plug 500 at Pocono. The night before the race, Vogler was tragically killed while leading a USAC race at Salem. Ray DeWitt’s team withdrew the car, which was still credited with its 32nd-place starting spot, but classified in last place with zero laps completed and “did not start” as the listed reason. Vogler was not listed among the race’s three DNQs as he had earned a starting spot. Coming into Sunday’s race, this had been the last time such has happened in the Cup Series.

This weekend, NASCAR elected to simply remove Zilisch from Sunday’s starting lineup and republish a 39-car starting lineup with cars ranked behind Zilisch’s 25th-place car all moved up a spot. Thus, the race results would show only 39 starters, leaving out a car that was on the published entry list and put up times in both practice and qualifying. Since this provided an incomplete record of the weekend’s 40 qualified entrants, and since NASCAR had handled a near identical situation by still showing the car in the official results, I have decided to credit Zilisch with the last-place finish. This is consistent with the “LPF” definition I’ve set out for this site, which can be found at the bottom of the main page.

III. THE RACE

What follows, then, is the battle for 39th place and the remaining spots in the Bottom Five.

Bumped from 40th to 39th in the running order was Josh Bilicki in the #66 Southern Tier Security Ford, marking the first Watkins Glen start for Carl Long’s team Garage 66. No drivers incurred pre-race penalties, so when the green flag dropped at the new “restart zone” between Turns 10 and 11, Bilicki’s right-hand lane moved up, pulling him alongside J.J. Yeley in the #44 Syracuse Football NIL Chevrolet for the NY Racing Team. Yeley beat Bilicki to the stripe, the #66 showing 5.766 seconds back of the lead. At the start of Lap 2, he was 9.980 back of the lead, then 12.991 on Lap 3 and 15.579 on Lap 4, about four-tenths back of Yeley.

On Lap 7, Kyle Larson’s #5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet was racing Austin Dillon’s #3 Breztri Chevrolet into Turn 1 when Larson spun at corner apex, his car stopped in the run-off zone. As Larson returned to the track, he radioed he had lost brake pressure, that the pedal had eased down to the floor as if bleeding the system. He made it to pit road under green, where Bilicki dropped him to last, 23.608 seconds back of the lead to Larson’s 42.170. Larson stopped in his pits at Stall 14, closer to the Turn 1 exit of the pits. The crew looked under the hood, then on Lap 9 he backed up to the nearest garage entrance. Crew chief Cliff Daniels called for a brake line change. As Larson pulled into his garage stall for repairs, Bilicki remained on the lead lap through the Lap 21 caution to end Stage 1, at which point he was 59.719 seconds back of the lead.

On Lap 22, Daniels told Larson to do ten slow pumps on the brake pedal, and the crew tightened the bleeders. But the brake fluid continued to leak from what USA’s broadcast reported was a seal issue, forcing the team to start over again. On Lap 24, Larson’s onboard camera was shut off, the graphic replacing the feed indicating “Current Status: Garage.” But at nearly the same moment, the crew was securing the hood and directing Larson back out of the garage. He returned to the track on Lap 24 with sticker tires and a full fuel tank, his car 16 laps down. The driver then asked what the fastest lap of the race had been. At the time, Ross Chastain had taken the one-lap bonus point from Kyle Busch with a lap of around 73.40 seconds.

On the Lap 26 restart, Larson trailed the field by open track, then set after the fastest lap bonus, which he took on his 11th lap around the track, around Lap 30 in the race itself. His speed of 73.20 seconds wouldn’t be bested the rest of the afternoon – and he wouldn’t climb from 39th, either. On Lap 30, Larson got one of his laps back after Josh Berry spun his #21 Freightliner Ford exiting Turn 5. Berry also lost a lap in the incident, a lap he earned back when Stage 2 ended on Lap 42. No other drivers fell out of the race, and Larson crossed the finish line 15 laps down. Berry took 35th, passing the cars of Yeley, Bilicki, and the #78 Desnuda Chevrolet of Katherine Legge, who had each lost a lap to the leaders. On Lap 68, Yeley incurred a speeding penalty in Sections 12, 13, and 14, followed by Bilicki’s Lap 69 penalty for his crew coming over the wall too soon. Legge lost her lap on Lap 70, got it back when Brad Keselowski pitted out of sequence with 16 to go, then lost it again with 13 to go.

My subsequent decision to classify Connor Zilisch in last place bumped Larson out of last place, Josh Berry from the Bottom Five, and Ty Dillon out of the Bottom Ten.

LASTCAR STATISTICS

*This marked the first “did not start” in the Cup Series since September 5, 1993, when Bob Schacht’s #85 Burger King Ford had battery issues on the grid that prevented him from starting the Southern 500 at Darlington.

*This marked the first last-place finish for the #87 in a Cup Series race at Watkins Glen since August 13, 2000, when Ron Fellows’ #87 Bully Hill Vineyards Chevrolet lost the engine after 21 laps.

THE BOTTOM FIVE

40) #87-Connor Zilisch / 0 laps / did not start*

39) #5-Kyle Larson / 75 laps / running

38) #44-J.J. Yeley / 89 laps / running

37) #66-Josh Bilicki / 89 laps / running

36) #78-Katherine Legge / 89 laps / running

*Zilisch’s “did not start” was not classified in NASCAR’s official results

2025 LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) Kaulig Racing, Trackhouse Racing (3)

2nd) 23XI Racing, Garage 66, Hendrick Motorsports, Legacy Motor Club, Penske Racing (2)

3rd) Front Row Motorsports, Hyak Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, NY Racing Team, RFK Racing, Richard Childress Racing, Rick Ware Racing, Spire Motorsports (1)

2025 LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) Chevrolet (12)

2nd) Ford (7)

3rd) Toyota (5)

2025 LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

Brock Beard https://lastcar.info
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