Bob Pockrass
Fox Motorsports Insider
Connor Zilisch suffered an injury on the lower back on Saturday in Talladega Superspeedway, an injury that will hold him out of the XFINITY series race this weekend in Texas Motor Speedway.
The Cup Kyle Larson series pilot will replace Zilisch in the JR Motorsports n ° 88 car.
Larson and Zilisch won Xfinity races this year. Zilisch, who is sixth in the series classification, won the Circuit of the Americas. Larson, champion of the 2021 Cup and second in the ranking of the current Cup series, has two departures in the series this year and won his latest Xfinity departure in Bristol. A cup pilot granted a maximum of five races in the XFINITY series each year.
Zilisch, 18, was involved in a late wreck who was fighting for the head of Talladega, where he tried to block a race by Jesse Love and was turned, sliding his head the first in the interior wall.
He complained from his back to his team on the radio in the car after the accident, but said that after leaving the medical center, the radiographs were clear.
“Just a great success like that, everything is compressing and you feel it,” said Zilisch. “I’m doing well.”
Zilisch said he would follow up with his doctors this week, and the team sent a statement on Wednesday evening that Texas would miss. Trackhouse Racing would not comment on the extent of the lower back injury and if it has fractures.
The Xfinity series has two weeks off after Texas because it does not take place in the next weekends in Kansas and North Wilkesboro. Zilisch should run the Xfinity and Cup races during the Memorial Day weekend in Charlotte.
Zilisch would need an exemption from Nascar to stay eligible for the playoffs while missing a race during the regular season. Nascar regularly gives a waiver of medical conditions.
Bob Pockrass covers Nascar and Indycar for Fox Sports. He has spent decades to cover motorsport, including more than 30 Daytona 500, with stays in ESPN, Sporting News, Nascar Scene Magazine and Le (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow it on Twitter @bobpockrash.
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