Zilisch Wins at The Glen When Love Goes Wide in the Final Turn After Leading the Entire Last Lap
Saturday, May 9, 2026
Connor Zilisch won the Mission 200 at The Glen when Jesse Love — who led the entire final lap — went wide in the final turn, and Zilisch came through on the inside to take the lead and win by 0.262 seconds.
The Short Version
Zilisch wins from 17th, closing 14 seconds in the final 16 laps on fresher tires before Love’s final-lap mistake hands it over. Love finishes 0.262 back after leading 18 laps. Brent Crews leads 32 laps, wins Stage 1 as the youngest stage winner in series history, and finishes sixth. Taylor Gray third from 25th. Zilisch wins Stage 2.
What Happened
Crews went to the front early and ran there. He led 32 laps from the fourth starting spot — more than any other driver — and won Stage 1 at lap 20. The stage note reads: youngest stage winner in series history. He was running second through much of Stage 2 before the pit cycle at lap 42 reshuffled the order.
Zilisch won Stage 2 from the front, but it was the pit strategy in the final stage that decided the race. Love pitted for four tires at lap 47. Zilisch pitted for four tires at lap 56 — nine laps later, getting fresher rubber into the critical closing stretch. By lap 66, Zilisch was running sixth with the freshest tires among the lead-lap cars, sitting 14.041 seconds behind Love.
He closed all of it. At lap 73: 5.374 seconds back. At lap 77, Zilisch clipped the grass exiting the bus stop and brushed the wall — right front damage — and kept going. At the white flag, lap 81: 0.663 seconds behind.
Final lap. Love leads through the bus stop, through the esses, all the way to the final turn. He goes wide. Zilisch is on the inside. Zilisch takes the lead. 0.262 seconds at the flag.
The Defining Moment
The final turn, lap 82. Love led the entire last lap — through the bus stop, through the esses, all the way to the final corner. He went wide. Zilisch, on the inside, took the lead and never gave it back.
The final-turn mistake is the moment you see.
The One That Got Away
Jesse Love. Led 18 laps. Led the entire final lap — through the bus stop, through every corner — until the last one. He went wide in the final turn and Zilisch came through on the inside. He finishes 0.262 seconds back at a track where the margin between winning and losing was the last corner of the last lap.
Numbers That Matter
- Winner: Connor Zilisch(i) — No. 1 · Chevrolet
- Margin of Victory: 0.262 seconds
- Cautions: 5 for 13 laps
- Lead Changes: 13 among 6 leaders
- Stage 1: Brent Crews | Stage 2: Connor Zilisch(i)
- Laps Led: Crews — 32 | Love — 18 | Zilisch — 20 | SVG(i) — 7 | Mayer — 3 | Caruth — 3
- Fastest Lap: Brent Crews — 122.612 mph (Lap 52)
Take
Zilisch was 14 seconds back with 16 laps to go and won the race. That’s the story. The Love mistake at the bus stop makes the final margin look close — and it was close — but the gap had been closing lap by lap since he pitted at lap 56. The fresher tires were doing work long before turn seven. Love’s mistake just determined when it became official.
Crews winning Stage 1 as the youngest stage winner in series history is worth more than a footnote. Three weeks ago he was a Texas notebook entry — Kansas fifth, Talladega second, $100,000 Dash 4 Cash at Texas. Now he’s a series record holder and the driver who led the most laps at a road course where Cup cameos run away with it. He finished sixth. The results don’t fully capture the trajectory.
SVGfinishes eighth. He doesn’t win road course cameos in the Xfinity Series the way he does at the Cup level — or at least not today. Chastain finishes fourth from 29th, which is closer to the expected road course cameo result. Gray third from 25th is the result nobody saw coming from the name nobody was watching.
Sawalich’s engine expired at lap 15. He was running inside the top 12. Another early exit for a driver who has had a rough stretch since Talladega.
Notes
- Crews’ Stage 1 win is the youngest stage win in NOS history. The Kansas notebook now has a history entry.
- Zilisch sustained right front damage at lap 77 — clipped grass, brushed the wall — and still closed a 5.374-second gap in the final five laps. The tire advantage absorbed the hit.
- Love’s pit at lap 47 vs. Zilisch’s at lap 56 is the race within the race. Nine laps of tire delta across a road course in the final stint is the difference between winning and losing.
- Creed finished 29th, one lap down — went through the grass at the bus stop on lap 46 and got airborne. He was running inside the top 15 before it.
- Sawalich reported a blown engine at lap 15 while running near 11th. DNF at lap 15.
- Chastain(i) starts 29th after the qualifying mechanical issue carried over from the Trucks race Friday and finishes fourth. The road course floor for that driver is very high.