WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – The NASCAR world got the first glimpse of a likely pairing that will be competing at the front of the field for years to come during Friday’s Craftsman Truck Series race at Watkins Glen International.
Connor Zilisch and Brent Crews – close allies away from competition – combined to lead 47 of the 73 laps in the Bully Hill Vineyards 176, with Zilisch taking the checkered flag in second while Crews came home seventh. The two upstarts traded paint on multiple occasions, the first coming at the start of Stage 2 and dropping Crews’ No. 1 Tricon Garage truck from the lead.
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Four newly implemented tire-pack barriers – ranging from 11 feet off the course to a mere six feet with the esses approaching on the exit of Turn 1 – had thrown Zilisch for a loop.
“Off of [Turn] 1, it was my fault,” Zilisch admitted. “I didn’t mean to run up the track and get into [Crews] like that. It’s hard when the track is that much tighter, you don’t realize where you are.”
The two drivers banged fenders again on another restart at Lap 50. Crews was on the wrong side of that skirmish yet again, dropping in the running order. He even radioed to the No. 1 Tricon bunch that Zilisch was “a weapon.”
“I don’t think anybody was more guilty than the other, but I don’t know,” Crews said. “I haven’t talked to [Zilisch] yet. I don’t know if he’ll talk to me or not, but definitely felt like he probably ran me harder than he needed to, especially with that many laps left, but we both have nothing to lose at the same time.
“I’m sure it wasn’t on purpose, but when you’re racing hard up there, stuff happens.”
Crews didn’t forget the earlier contact when the field lined up for the penultimate restart. He bumped Zilisch entering the Turn 1 brake zone, costing the No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet the race lead.
Zilisch said he plans to connect with Crews, as the duo will battle again in Saturday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race.
Zilisch said: “We race hard. I will go talk to him about it.”
In a caution-filled 15 laps, Zilisch traded the lead back and forth with Ross Chastain, Gio Ruggiero and Kaden Honeycutt. Ultimately, it was Honeycutt who prevailed, shotgunning a beer on the frontstretch, scoring his first triumph in his 67th series start.
Both Zilisch and Crews were among those ping-ponged around in a series of late restarts, which pushed the event to overtime. Zilisch said he opted against using rougher tactics to steal a win away.
“Anybody could have chosen the inside and done that, but I didn’t want to be that guy,” Zilisch added. “I wanted to race without having to move a guy for the win. I was hoping Kaden would do that; I probably should have realized that he was going for his first win. It’s all good. We learned, we moved on and go get them the rest of the weekend.”
