After last weekend, only one name floated in our heads as Connor Zilisch collected a Watkins Glen trophy on his Xfinity debut and captivated his fans. The young phenom thus carried the weight of expectations at the ARCA Menards East championship decider in Bristol. Yet right then Lady Luck intervened—a mid-race incident struck down Zilisch’s progress and granted William Sawalich a golden opportunity.

Joe Gibbs’ young star is a solid rival for Zilisch, as the two drivers were mired in competition for the championship. Yet Zilisch stood out with four victories, while Sawalich had two. But circumstances went haywire at Bristol and let the latter hold out with a double achievement.

Things just fell right in place for William Sawalich

Entering the Bush’s Beans 200 race, two scenarios existed for William Sawalich. If an 11th-place finish by Connor Zilisch matched Sawalich’s max point total of 399, the former still had the latter in a chokehold due to a superior number of wins. In the off chance that Zilisch finished below 11th, there was a chance for Sawalich to protect his 2023 championship crown. But Zilisch’s stellar top-four finishes this year made that a slim possibility. However, things fell into place for the JGR driver unexpectedly, as he won the race.

On lap 65 of the race, Logan Misucara’s car spun in turns 3 and 4 and collected Zilisch in the process. This damage was enough to kick Dale Jr.’s prodigy out with a P26 finish, as his rival soared to victory. In Victory Lane at the 0.533-mile short track, William Sawalich credited Zilisch’s failure. “I mean there’s definitely a lot more on the line. And we weren’t sure enough if we had it. So it was a kind of a surprise in the middle of the race…it made me happy and had the drive to go after them.” 

William Sawalich also thanked his Joe Gibbs Racing team and spotter, Tony Hirschman, for guiding him through the tricky parts. “Yeah, I mean, we had a really fast ARCA Toyota Camry today. Had Tony Hirschman in my ear to kind of calm me down…and make me cautious around those lap cars – that was the whole race right there.” After Zilisch got out of his way, Sawalich battled hard with Landen Lewis and took the lead for the final time with 33 laps left. Even an overtime restart could not stutter his progress as he pulled away to win the Bristol race by 0.397 seconds.

At the same time, William Sawalich acknowledged his last-lap rival’s tremendous help in pushing him.

Rival turned into a friend?

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Well, the Zilisch and Sawalich rivalry chapter closed on lap 65. Even though the JR Motorsports racer had the upper hand in terms of wins, a competitor’s clammy hands took him out.

“I hate to end the season like that and lose a championship in that way too,” Connor Zilisch lamented. Yet William Sawalich still had some competition left to snuff out in the race. Landen Lewis drove the No. 97 Chevy and turned it into a fierce threat to Sawalich’s No. 7 Chevy. Yet both enjoyed locking horns with each other—until Sawalich pulled away at the end.

William Sawalich tipped his hat in gratitude to Lewis for pushing him. He said, “Lots of restarts, had plenty of time to work on them. Can’t thank the 97 enough for racing me. Really good…we’ve been friends for a while, and great racing here.” 

Despite losing the victor’s seat by a fraction of a second, Landen Lewis also displayed true sportsmanship and said, “All day me and William raced each other hard and clean. Just as hard we could go but as clean as we could. It was really cool to race against that caliber of a team. It’s definitely really cool. Me and William are really close friends so it was definitely different racing against each other like that, but I had a blast.”

Evidently, the ARCA Bristol race favored William Sawalich today, as things fell into place. Yet Connor Zilisch may have time to get back at him at the Truck Series race.