Dale Jr.‘s NASCAR prodigy Connor Zilisch reacts to his pit road penalty during Xfinity Homestead race

Connor Zilisch had a tough outing at Homestead-Miami Speedway after NASCAR penalized him due to the No. 88 pit crew members going over the wall too soon. Zilisch, who started second in the race, eventually finished 12th.

Driving the No. 88 Chevrolet Camaro for Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s JR Motorsports team, Zilisch pitted on lap 149 and slowed down coming to the pit box to avoid the No. 91 of Myatt Snider. The incident resulted in crew members stepping on the pit box before the No. 88 came in, forcing a pit road penalty.

The 18-year-old driver dropped a lap down and was spoiled of a strong race finish.

"We weren't fantastic but we had a good enough car to inside top five, I think," Zilisch said via Frontstretch on X.

"Frustrated to have four weeks in a row to have something happen on the pit road, which is frustrating, and some of them have been me. We all got to take accountability and clean it up," Dale Jr.'s prodigy added.

When asked about finishing 12th despite getting a pit road penalty, the North Carolina native said:

"We had such a good car on a long run that those last two runs in the final stages, we're able to make up a lot of speed and get to the front. After 20, 30 laps into our run, we were really fast. Frustrated we couldn't show a little more but excited for next week." [0:46]

The misfortune at Homestead-Miami Speedway followed last week's outing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where Connor Zilisch was penalized for speeding on the pit road. He also received a pit road penalty at the Circuit of the Americas but was able to return to the front for his first win of the 2025 Xfinity Series season.

Despite dropping to 12th place, Zilisch advanced two positions to seventh in the standings. He scored six points after the second stage before the penalty compromised his race.

JR Motorsports teammate Justin Allgaier won the Homestead-Miami race and earned the $100,000 Dash 4 Cash prize money.

Connor Zilisch drives the No. 88 Chevrolet Camaro for JR Motorsports - Source: Imagn

The next race weekend will be hosted at Martinsville Speedway on March 29. The Marine Corps 250 will mark Zilisch's first Xfinity race on a short track.

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"Gotta clean it up": Connor Zilisch on pit road woes at Homestead-Miami

Connor Zilisch took to X (formerly Twitter) to share his thoughts on the pit road inconsistency of the No. 88 team. He said the team should "clean it up" as pit road issues cost him good race results for four consecutive weeks.

Speaking about the pit road troubles, Zilisch wrote on the social media platform:

"4th week in a row with pit road issues 😵‍💫 gotta clean it up."

Regardless, the youngster thanked the team and sponsor for giving him a strong car in Miami.

"The speed is there! Thank you @WeatherTech and @JRMotorsports," he added.

In the last four races, Connor Zilisch qualified inside the top 5. However, due to pit road issues, he only scored one top-5 and two top-10s.