INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Saturday will be a day that NASCAR driver Connor Zilisch will never forget.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series driver for JR Motorsports won the Pennzoil 250 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

“This is awesome,” Zilisch said in an IMS news release. “Those bricks look really kissable, and I’m ready to kiss them. Winning at Indy is awesome and getting 100 wins for JRM is pretty cool, too, so I consider this a pretty awesome day.”

It was his third straight win in the Xfinity Series, following victories at Dover and Sonoma.

The race aired on live on WISH-TV and the numbers are in. According to a post on X, formally known as Twitter, by The CW Sports:

• Viewership was up +23% compared to last year’s 21st race from Michigan (which aired on USA)
• Audience grew +6% over last week’s race from Dover
• Viewership peaked at 1,333,000 total viewers from 7:15 – 7:30 p.m. EDT

Overall, the event had 1,108,000 viewers according to the post.

Zilisch actually spoke with News 8’s Cody Adams earlier this year on Life.Style.Live! ahead of the Xfinity Series’ race in Mexico. Click here to watch their full conversation.

The next NASCAR Xfinity Series race will be at Iowa Speedway on Saturday. The HyVee Perks 250 will begin at 4:30 p.m. EDT and can be seen live on WISH-TV. It will be one of five races remaining for the series before the Xfinity Series playoffs begin.

The following are the remaining races remaining ahead of the playoffs:

• Saturday, Aug. 2 – Iowa Speedway
• Saturday, Aug. 9 – Watkins Glen International
• Friday, Aug. 22 – Daytona International Speedway
• Saturday, Aug. 30 – Portland International Raceway
• Saturday, Sept. 6 – World Wide Technology Raceway

The playoffs begin on Friday, Sept. 12 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Justin Allgaier leads the Xfinity Series standings by 21 points over Zilisch, although Zilisch has won five times this season compared to Allgaier’s three victories.

To re-watch Saturday’s Pennzoil 250 at IMS, click here.

What kind of vehicle was Friesen driving?

NASCAR suspended Austin Hill one race for intentionally wrecking Aric Almirola in last weekend’s Xfinity Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Hill will not compete in Saturday’s race at Iowa Speedway. Richard Childress Racing stated it would not appeal Hill’s penalty. Austin Dillon will drive Hill’s car at Iowa.

A playoff waiver will have to be requested for Hill to maintain his playoff eligibility, but he will lose all the playoff points he’s earned and any playoff points he scores in the final five races of the regular season.

With the waiver, Hill will be last in points with 2,000 entering the first round of the playoffs.

Hill had scored 21 playoff points — behind only Connor Zilisch (29 playoff points) and Justin Allgaier (21) — this season. Hill has three wins and six stage wins.

Stewart Friesen will require surgery after his crash Monday night.

The incident between Hill and Almirola unfolded late in the Xfinity race last weekend.

Almirola got to the rear of Hill’s car and got him loose as they raced for fourth with 10 laps left in last weekend’s race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The back end of Hill’s car slid out but he corrected the slide and straightened the car as Almirola moved underneath him. Hill’s car then had contact with the right rear of Almirola’s car, sending into the SAFER barrier nose-first.

“That was violent,” Almirola said of the crash. “To be totally honest, that was one of the hardest hits I’ve taken in my NASCAR career. The impact felt very similar to when I broke my back (in 2017 at Kansas Speedway). I’d be very interested to see the black box data from (Saturday’s) crash, but it was vicious and that’s just uncalled for.

“I got him a little bit loose to get under him because it was time to go. I would have never done that five laps into the race, but when you’re coming down to the end of the race at Indianapolis and he’s already blocked me three times, I certainly got him loose.

“I didn’t feel what he did was necessary. I felt like he could have easily fell back in line. He was damaged anyway. We were losing time to the leaders. It wasn’t like we were on pace with them. He was holding me up clearly.

“It’s just unfortunate. He obviously lost his mind right there. That was really bad judgment in my opinion.”

NASCAR penalized Hill five laps his contact with Almirola.

Chase Elliott leads the points but the next three drivers in the standings are within 20 points with four races left in the regular season.

Hill said on the team’s radio after the incident: “I couldn’t hang on to it. I was not trying to right rear him. He had me out of control. I was like jerk back to the left to keep it off the wall. I’m not sure what the hell he thought just running me over in (Turn) 3, though.”

After being told on the radio he was being held five laps for reckless driving, Hill directed multiple expletives to NASCAR.

Asked if Hill should be suspended, car owner Richard Childress said: “Hell, no. They didn’t do a damn thing to the No. 2 car (Austin Cindric). He wrecked Ty (Dillon) and admitted to it, drove him in the right rear and wrecked him at COTA. It’s who you are. We’re a blue-collar team. They give us trouble all the time.”

NASCAR did not penalize Cindric during the race for wrecking Dillon at COTA, but series officials docked Cindric 50 points and fined him $50,000 a few days later after reviewing the incident.

What kind of vehicle was Friesen driving?

Malcolm in the Middle star turned NASCAR driver Frankie Muniz, who recently participated in the Mustang Challenge Le Mans Invitational, has no intention of spending any of his Hollywood earnings on his racing career.

Currently in the middle of a tough Craftsman Truck Series season with Reaume Brothers Racing, driving the No. 33 Ford, Muniz has recently opened up on the financial difficulties associated with his newfound career, whilst taking the opportunity to shoot down suggestions he is funding this passion project off the back of his silver screen success.

“I don’t spend any of my money going racing,” the 39-year-old told the LA Times. “I made a promise to my wife (Paige) that I would not do that. So, I can kill that rumor right there.”

With none of Muniz’s personal money funding his truck for the year, which has an estimated cost of $3.5 million for a 25-race season, he’s had to rely on sponsorships just like the rest of the field. Unsurprisingly, this aspect of racing is one Muniz has admitted to disliking in a recent appearance on the Beating and Banging podcast.

“It is so hard,” Muniz admitted. “And I said, I don’t like tooting my own horn, but like, I have a lot of social media followers. I was on TV. I do get press and things and, like, I’m doing a cover shoot right now for a huge nationwide national syndicated magazine. And I get things, or attention, that because I was on TV that other drivers don’t get. I don’t know how other people sell. That’s the truth, because it is so hard.”

“Can we raise more money? Absolutely. Do I want to raise more money? Absolutely,” he said. “Because if we have more as a team together, like collectively makes us better. And if you’re competing against teams that are spending in the Truck Series, $3 to $5 million, I don’t know, crazy numbers, like $3 million, and you’re spending $1, $5, $2 million, it’s hard to compete. You know what I mean?

“That’s just the truth. Money does equate to speed usually. So there’s also the fine line of like, you’ve got to start building, like we have 10 races left. We’ve got races open…

“We can sell more races, but then you’ve got to start going like, well, we need to be focused on next year. People’s budgets or our company’s budgets for 2026 are closing by the end of this quarter. Then when you start asking for money in November, December, January, we’ve already allotted where we’re putting our money. So you’ve got to be so far ahead of the game, but it’s probably my least favorite part.”

With 16 races done and nine to go this season, Muniz has so far finished in the top 20 on three occasions, with his best result coming at Daytona in the season opener where he crossed the line in 10th for the team’s second best result of the year behind Jason White’s eighth places finish that same day in the No. 22.

Now, following a 27th place finish at the TSport 200 on Friday, leaving him 24th in the drivers standings, Muniz will turn his attention to the challenging road course at Watkins Glen on August 8.

What kind of vehicle was Friesen driving?