“It stings, it sucks”: Connor Zilisch doesn’t hold back his feelings after unwanted championship race outcome

Connor Zilisch opened up on the aftermath of losing the Xfinity Series championship. Despite feeling dejected, the 19-year-old shared that he holds no regrets since he gave it all for the title bid.

Zilisch's title loss marked a sour note during the championship weekend at Phoenix. The JR Motorsports driver began ahead of his final four rivals, but ended up behind his best friend and new Xfinity Series champion, Jesse Love.

They both led a comparable number of laps, but Zilisch had more to lose due to his record-setting season. With 10 wins, 20 top 10s and more than 1000 laps led, the young prodigy had a trailblazing rookie season.

However, Zilisch shared that he has 'come to terms' with his misfortune. In a press conference three days after the fact, the No.88 driver further stated(via NASCAR's official website),

“At the end of the day, I did everything I could. And my team, the whole JR Motorsports group, we gave our all, and I don’t have any reason to be upset about what happened. Yeah, it stings. It sucks. But yeah, we did everything we could and we tried our best." "If I walked out of that place knowing that I could have done something differently, then I probably would have been a little more upset. But I gave it my all. I did everything I could, and yeah, the result wasn’t meant to be,” he added.

Connor Zilisch has plenty more to look forward to. He transitions to the Cup Series next year and will drive a Trackhouse Racing entry alongside Shane van Gisbergen and Ross Chastain. Part-time NASCAR driver Stefan Parsons is set to be his spotter as well.

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Connor Zilisch reveals his interaction with Jesse Love after title loss

Connor Zilisch shared that he harbours no hard feelings over Jesse Love's title win. The JRM driver absolved Love of any wrongdoing. He further revealed that they both celebrated Love's championship as well.

"He did nothing wrong. He asked me, he’s like, ‘are you mad at me?’ And I was like, ‘I don’t have any reason to be mad at you, dude. You’re not the one who created the situation. You just executed when you needed to.’," Zilisch said via the aforementioned source.

When compared to Connor Zilisch, Jesse Love's stats pale in comparison. The Richard Childress Racing driver won the season-opening Daytona 500, but couldn't muster another win until the championship race at Phoenix. Notably, he was disqualified from his win at Rockingham Speedway due to a technical infraction.

However, Love did secure pole on four occasions and finished runner-up twice. He records an average finish of 11, while Zilisch has an average of eight. Moreover, the No.2 driver has less than half of Zilisch's top-5 finishes.

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Edited by Vignesh Kanna