Denny Hamlin blames NASCAR for Zilisch controversy

Connor Zilisch continued his NASCAR Xfinity Series dominance at Portland, but it did not come without controversy.

Zilisch has now won seven races in eight starts, that despite suffering a fractured collarbone at Watkins Glen in early August. Most of those wins have been clinics with his rivals simply blown away.

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‘Godzilisch’ was again clearly the best driver on the track in Oregon last Saturday, but this victory came on the back of a majorly controversial incident at the final restart.

Coming into Turn 1, the 19-year-old sensation appeared to lock his brakes and went off, cutting through the chicane before returning to the actual track.

Many fans were not happy with what they saw, believing Zilisch had gained an unfair advantage. Cup Series great Denny Hamlin went deep on the topic on his Actions Detrimental podcast.

Hamlin on Zilisch controversy

He explained: “It was very controversial in the way that he won it. I guess the uproar is that they feel he didn’t even attempt to make the first corner. He had it in his mind the entire time that ‘I’m just gonna go ahead and blow this, run that chicane, and see where I net out’.

“So that does two things for him. One, they figure that it’s really not that big of a time loss. And two it would be ‘well now I’m gonna avoid the corner where the incidents happen the most often’. So you take yourself out of the opportunity of getting wrecked.

“From what I understand is that Xfinity teams were practising running that chicane during practice. They were planning on blowing Turn 1 because the net time loss was not substantial. And especially if you’re bottled up on a restart, it was actually a gain.”

While Hamlin believes the end result was not good optics for the sport, he believes NASCAR - and not Zilisch is ultimately to blame.

Blame NASCAR, and the rules

“Is there any doubt that the best car won? No. Or the best driver won? No. That’s just not good sport. Not on Connor’s part, I’m talking about on the sport. You gotta do better than that.

“These chicanes have been exposed for a few years now, and you haven’t figured out a way to actually make them penalize you when you miss the track? Just poor planning. Poor lots of stuff.”

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