Race Winner: Connor Zilisch of JR Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Winner: Connor Zilisch of JR Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 2 Winner: William Byron of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
SHR Race Finish:
● Riley Herbst (Started 12th / Finished 13th, Running, completed 90 of 90 laps)
● Cole Custer (Started 15th / Finished 21st, Running, completed 90 of 90 laps)
SHR Points:
● Cole Custer (2nd with 858 points, 43 out of first)
● Riley Herbst (8th with 724 points, 177 out of first)
SHR Notes:
● Herbst earned his 15th top-15 of the season and his third top-15 in four career NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at Watkins Glen.
● Herbst finished eighth in Stage 1 to earn three bonus points and seventh in Stage 2 to earn four more bonus points.
● Custer finished sixth in Stage 1 to earn five bonus points and sixth in Stage 2 to earn five more bonus points.
● Custer led once for six laps increasing his laps led total at Watkins Glen to seven.
Race Notes:
● Connor Zilisch won the Mission 200 at The Glen under caution to score his first career Xfinity Series victory in his series debut. He is the seventh different driver to win in their Xfinity Series debut.
● There were seven caution periods for a total of 19 laps.
● Twenty-one of the 38 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
● Justin Allgaier remains the championship leader after Watkins Glen with a 43-point advantage over second-place Cole Custer.
Sound Bites:
“It’s so frustrating. We were set up to get a great finish and on the last lap, we got wrecked. Road courses haven’t always been our strongest tracks so to come out of here with a top-10 would’ve been a great day for us. I hate it for my guys and Monster Energy. We’ve been building such strong runs just to have a bad finish because of something not of our own doing. Hopefully we can head to my favorite track next weekend and bring home a win at Bristol.” –Riley Herbst, driver of the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang Dark Horse
“Road courses are just anyone’s game. We had a strong day building with stage points and being up there at the end. We got spun on one of the restarts, and I feel like it was just too late to recover from that. These kinds of days are tough as a driver, but I’m proud of my No. 00 team for hanging in there to the checkered flag. I hate that we couldn’t get a better finish for HighPoint.com but we have another shot to get them a win next weekend in Bristol.” –Cole Custer, driver of the No. 00 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse
Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is the Food City 300 on Friday, Sept. 20 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. The race begins at 7:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by CW and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
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