![\"Connor](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2263952820.jpg\")
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Connor Zilisch tangled with Corey Day in Saturday’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at COTA<\/p>\n
Connor Zilisch had a top-five run going in Saturday\u2019s NASCAR<\/a> O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Circuit of The Americas. That was until the 11-time O\u2019Reilly Series winner ran into the path of Hendrick Motorsports driver Corey Day.<\/p>\n With three laps remaining in Saturday\u2019s Focused Health 250, Day\u2019s No. 17 Chevrolet nudged Zilisch\u2019s No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet amid a battle for fifth place, sending the latter spinning and colliding with a retaining wall<\/a>.<\/p>\n The incident went without a caution. Zilisch was able to continue, but wound up finishing 21st. Meanwhile, Day went on to finish fifth to record his second top-five finish of the season.<\/p>\n After the race, Zilisch had a few choice words for Day after contact that left him with a battered No. 1 machine.<\/p>\n Zilisch on incident with Day: \u2018Same guy every week\u2019<\/p>\n Zilisch, who competes for Trackhouse Racing full-time in the Cup Series, didn\u2019t feel any need to explain what transpired between he and Day on the racetrack.<\/p>\n In his post-race interview with The CW<\/a>, Zilisch detailed the challenges of rallying back from brake problems to run top five. Unfortunately, his late push towards the front was ruined after contact with Day.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t need to explain myself. Really unfortunate. \u2026 We had to change a left rear brake and the entire caliper. I hate that it ended like that for us. We were going to finish top five there, and same guy every week that does this. Hopefully, he can figure it out,\u201d Zilisch said.<\/p>\n Zilisch said he enjoyed piloting the JR Motorsports machine on Saturday despite not coming away with the result he hoped for. Above everything, Zilisch desired an apology from Day post-race, but it\u2019s not something he was given.<\/p>\n However, Zilisch went on to say Day would \u201cfigure it out\u201d and is looking forward to Sunday\u2019s Cup Series race.<\/p>\n \u201cAll I want is an apology but the guy just stands over there and stares at me and that just makes it worse. He\u2019ll figure it out. We\u2019ll go on to tomorrow and try to have a better day tomorrow,\u201d Zilisch said.<\/p>\n Day reflects on contact with Zilisch: \u2018It wasn\u2019t intentional\u2019<\/p>\n While Zilisch was left frustrated at the conclusion of Saturday\u2019s race, Day set the records straight on the incident. In his post-race interview with The CW, Day expressed how he was having issues with his No. 17 car and that the contact was unintentional.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m going to get no sympathy for I guess that off my track record. It wasn\u2019t intentional. Didn\u2019t want to wreck him or have that happen,\u201d Day said<\/a>.<\/p>\n While Zilisch expressed disappointment in not receiving an apology, Day made it known that he was willing to own up to his mistake.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve got no problem going over there and talking to him. It was my mistake, whether I had a broken race car or not. I\u2019ll own up to it and I\u2019ll go apologize, no problem,\u201d Day said.<\/p>\n Shane van Gisbergen, meanwhile, went on to win Saturday\u2019s O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series race. It was his fifth career win on the circuit, all coming on road courses.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tJohn Breeden<\/a> John Breeden is a NASCAR contributor at Heavy Sports. He has five years of sports journalism experience. He graduated from James Madison University in May of 2022 with a degree in media arts and design. John is also a sports reporter for the Daily News-Record in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Previously, John was a sports writer for JMU’s The Breeze and a NASCAR content writer for Sportskeeda. More about John Breeden<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on NASCAR\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Connor Zilisch tangled with Corey Day in Saturday’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at COTA Connor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":506660,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-506659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=506659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}