AUSTIN, Texas — All week at Circuit of The Americas, the hype and media focus has centered around Connor Zilisch making his NASCAR Cup Series debut on Sunday. But beforehand, the No. 88 JR Motorsports driver went on to win the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at COTA. However, his teammate Carson Kvapil, driver of the No. 1 Chevrolet, wasn’t going down without a fight.
The two rising stars shared an epic battle from the final stage restart to Lap 61 when Kvapil had a right-front tire go down. The JRM teammates didn’t mind having an aggressive battle for the win, but Kvapil will keep a long memory of how Zilisch raced him in closing moments on Saturday.
RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: COTA
“I might have felt a little slighted there,” Kvapil said post-race. “Just seemed like every corner we would just get blasted out of the way. And I mean, it is what it is. All these guys are super aggressive whenever you get to this level, but at the same time, it’s a little bit of a ‘What the heck, man,’ so definitely gonna put that in the back pocket and remember that for next time.”
Kvapil led the field to green on the final stage restart with Zilisch lined up right behind him. Both drivers had a victory on the mind going into Turn 1 as Zilisch pushed the No. 1 Chevy wide into the corner and both JRM drivers lost out on the lead to Austin Hill on Lap 46.
It was not much longer until Kvapil returned to the top spot. On Lap 52, the No. 21 of Hill wheel-hopped heading into Turn 12, which also allowed Zilisch to take second exiting the next corner.
The next two laps, Zilisch hounded Kvapil, roughing him up the very next lap and then finally got past the No. 1 Chevy on Lap 57 when Kvapil locked up his right-front tire, creating a flat spot.
Kvapil gave it one more shot the next lap, throwing a divebomb at Zilisch into Turn 6A, leading to the teammates trading paint. Zilisch held on and Kvapil’s tire went flat a few laps later, sealing his fate with a 23rd-place finish when a possible top-five was attainable.
The Mooresville, North Carolina native didn’t have any hurt feelings with how his teammate raced him. But it was a great measure of how to race each other and battle for wins going forward.
“I would have probably liked it a little better if we didn’t get knocked out of the way a few times,” Kvapil said. “But at the same time, we’re all going for the win and kind of sets the precedent for how we’re gonna race, and we’re all battling hard trying to go for the win here.”
Kvapil made his name as an aggressive short-track racer in late models, which ultimately led him to JRM in the first place. The fact he could take his first Xfinity Series win — in his first road-course appearance nonetheless — would show how much he’s grown as a driver through 13 starts at the national series level.
“It was a hard battle,” Kvapil added. “Though I knew through the esses we were better and I was able to get back to him that one time, but he just, he was able to get away from us.”
Kvapil’s crew chief, Andy Overstreet, praised his driver for unlocking a new level in during their prep for COTA.
“He’s excelled everywhere,” Overstreet told NASCAR.com “But on road courses, like he’ll be the first say ‘I don’t really know what I’m doing,’ but he was consistent. Getting ready for this race, Connor Zilisch was struggling and visually upset because he couldn’t go as fast as Carson through the esses and stuff in our prep. So he showed there that he had to speed, and he just took it and kept getting better and better through practice.
“It’s pretty cool to see the late model driver be up there racing with the kid that’s got millions of laps around road courses.”
Kvapil and the rest of the Xfinity Series stars return to action on Saturday, March 8 (5 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Phoenix Raceway.