Zilisch “grateful to be up and walking” after incident with ‘best friend’ Jesse Love

Jesse Love and Connor Zilisch are good friends off the track, but with a win on the line, both of the young racers battled fiercely at the front of the pack. And on the final lap of the NASCAR Xfinity race at Talladega, Love’s attempt to cut under Zilisch for the lead ended poorly for one — and awful for the other.

Zilisch spun, slamming the inside wall nose-first. He impacted the wall in such a way that it lifted the rear tires completely off the ground. He gingerly climbed from the car soon after, and was later checked and released from the infield care center. Love went on to finish third as his Richard Childress Racing teammate Austin Hill collected the checkered flag. 

Love worried about Zilisch

“I just got really good pushes there at the end,” said Love as he reflected on the race finish. “I was able to lift enough off of (Turn) 2 to get big pushes. I kind of thought we made our bed and were not in a good spot to win, and then I was able to get Austin [Hill] connected to me and he was able to give me some good pushed down the backstretch for a few laps. It was definitely tough how that ended. I hope my friend is okay.

”I’m not going to comment on what I thought happened there yet. I just want to go check on him and make sure he’s alright. Looked like a really hard hit, and he really hasn’t taken many hard hits yet.”

Zilisch thankful to walk away after impact

After his post-race interview, Love quickly made his way to the infield care center to check on Zilisch and apologize. Zilisch said of the impact: “That was one of the wrecks when you move the legs and make sure everything feels okay afterwards. Very grateful to drive safe JR Motorsports race cars. We were in the right spot. I haven’t really watched it close enough to see what happened, but grateful to be up and walking.”

Speaking about Love specifically, Zilisch added: “Jesse’s probably my best friend in the world. Grateful to have someone like him who can come and stand in front of me and give me a hug after that.”

Zilisch ended up finishing 27th, recording a DNF.