The practice runs and qualifying at Bowman Gray are done. And rookie phenom Connor Zilisch has qualified for the main event, the Cook Out Clash on Wednesday evening.
Zilisch just slipped into the qualifying zone, finishing 19th. He clocked a lap time of 14.237 to get in, just ahead of Daniel Suarez.
“Yeah it’s going to be nice being able to watch the last chance race from the grandstands and not have to be in it,” Zilisch told the FOX Sports broadcast team. “So that was our goal coming into today, was just be able to make it into the show and lock in.”
Connor Zilisch knew qualifying was going to be tough. Only so many cars make the main event, and you have to be on point through some potentially tricky conditions at the track today.
Weepers were emerging from the walls at Bowman Gray early on, forcing drivers to be alert. A few saw their back wheels spin on them as they picked up a bit of moisture toward the outside walls.
So the young driver was thrilled with his qualifying run. Now he’ll get a chance to show what he can do at the Cup Series level as a full-time driver.
“Yeah, grateful for the entire Trackhouse team,” Connor Zilisch said. “We’ve worked really hard this offseason to get everyone up to speed and get everyone ready. Yeah, good way to start the year.”
Connor Zilisch opens up on challenges
Before he qualified, Connor Zilisch spoke to the likely challenge he was going to face today at Bowman Gray. John Newby relayed his answers to the media on that topic.
“It’s going to be a lot to figure out quickly,” Zilisch said. “I’m in Group 1. The track’s obviously been sitting here for a while and hasn’t had the best weather on it the last week and a half, two weeks, so by no means is practice going to be an indicator of how qualifying is going to be. But I got to test at North Wilkesboro a couple weeks ago and get a little bit of short-track experience. But yeah, this track’s going to be a lot different than North Wilkesboro was.
“So yeah, I’m just going to have to learn quick, adapt quick and figure it out on the go. But it’s certainly not going to be easy today. I know that already being in Group 1, we’re all at a bit of a disadvantage just with how the track’s going to evolve. But everybody has kind of been dealt the same card, so you’ve got to figure it out, deal with it and make the most of the situation you’ve got.”
Safe to say Connor Zilisch has done just that. We’ll see him in the main event later this evening at 6 p.m. ET.