NASCAR star reveals plan to quit Daytona race early

Connor Zilisch has revealed that he's not planning to complete the distance of Friday night's Xfinity Series race at Daytona, as he recovers from a broken collarbone.

The teenager broke the bone falling off his car while celebrating victory last time out at Watkins Glen and, despite describing his recovery post-surgery as 'probably the best outcome' and being medically cleared to race, he and JR Motorsports aren't planning on taking too many chances.

NASCAR HEADLINES: Kyle Busch shows true colors as Connor Zilisch provides massive injury update

Quizzed by Fox's Bob Pockrass this week, Zilisch admitted that he's most likely to start off slowly and jump out of the car at the first caution of the day, handing the car over to Parker Kligerman for the rest of the night.

That will almost certainly mean that he loses the lead in the regular season championship, as he currently holds just a seven point lead over Justin Allgaier going into Friday's action.

However, with the playoffs just weeks away, his injury not fully healed yet and Zilisch having missed a race this season thanks to injuries sustained in a huge superspeedway wreck earlier this year at Talladega, he and his team have decided it's better to be fit to fit in the playoffs than to squabble for a single high-risk regular season race.

READ MORE: Denny Hamlin reveals major doubts about NASCAR star's future

Zilisch admits concerns over superspeedway dangers

Zilisch explained: "Parker's obviously going to be here, we fitted him in the car and he's going to be ready to go. Odds are that, just with the risk of having a wreck at Daytona...my wreck at Talladega I had black and blue bruises down both of my shoulders from the belts, from the impact on that.

"I don't know if I'm gonna run the entire race or get out at a caution, it's probably just going to be how I feel. But how I feel doesn't really matter, because if a wreck happens things could just much worse really quickly.

"I know that Parker has been in victory lane here before and knows how to get around this place, knows how to draft, so I'm very comfortable with getting out and letting him get in if need be."

Pressed on the likeliest scenario, he admitted: "Looking at it now, I'm most likely just going to pull out of line before the race starts and just ride around till a caution comes out and then do whatever needs to happen.

"Say I wake up tomorrow and I'm feeling really good, then who knows? But that's unlikely, the risk isn't worth fighting for and I don't want to see what the risk is. I wrecked here pretty big earlier this year."

NASCAR Schedule 2026 Every Cup, O'Reilly Auto Parts and Truck Series race confirmed

Related