“Lost a little bit of respect for him”: William Sawalich takes a swipe at Connor Zilisch post-Iowa NASCAR ARCA race

Friday's ARCA Menards Series Atlas 150 came down to a duel between two 17-year-old development drivers, Connor Zilisch and William Sawalich, over the last 23 laps. However, one of them, i.e., William Sawalich, was not happy with the way the other had raced him.

Sawalich and Connor Zilisch battled for the lead during those final laps, banging fenders three times on the late race restarts. The final yellow flag of the 150-lap race came out with just three laps to go. Zilisch capitalized on the restart and topped his rival by 0.513 seconds, en route to his second win of the season.

Sawalich expressed his frustration as he recalled his tussle with Zilisch.

"Definitely fighting that was a hindrance," the Joe Gibbs Racing driver said. "Jumped the start on one restart; lost a little bit of respect for him (Connor Zilisch) right there, other than that, tried everything I could."

Nevertheless, he credited his team for bringing out one of the fastest versions of his Starkey/Sound Gear Toyota.

"Definitely a lot of effort especially (from) the team, I mean, I can't thank them enough for trying everything that they can to get us up there up front and we did," he added.

In his maiden season (2023) as a Joe Gibbs Racing driver, Sawalich bagged the ARCA Menards Series East championship besides winning races in all three ARCA national categories. That year alone, the Minnesota native amassed 11 wins, seven poles, 33 top 5s, and 40 top 10s.

Besides competing in the ARCA Menards Series, the number 18 JGR speedster also drives for TRICON Garage in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and Kevin Harvick Inc. in Late Model races.

"Tried wrecking me"- Connor Zilisch responds to William Sawalich's claims

Despite Connor Zilisch's victory this year, the former Kart Racing prodigy felt that Sawalich had tried to wreck him out of the race.

“I don’t know what I could’ve done differently, I feel like he just drove up the track and tried wrecking me, and he about tried right hooking me down the back straightaway,” Zilisch said during a post-race interview as reported by Frontstretch.

"Anyway, I can’t say enough about my entire Pinnacle Racing Group team, it’s just a true team effort to get these wins," he added.

Here's a clip of Zilisch becoming the "first repeat-winner" this year:

Connor Zilisch awaits his 18th birthday in mid-July as he wants to start racing on NASCAR's ovals. According to a statement made to Speed Sports, Zilisch said,

"I want to be able to race on the big tracks in NASCAR and start learning as soon as I can. It's frustrating that I have to wait so long, but that's part of it."

Friday was the 18th time the ARCA Menards Series visited Iowa, Newton and for the second consecutive season, Pinnacle Racing Group swam to the victory lane at the 0.875-mile short track. Last year, it was Luke Fenhaus behind the wheel who grabbed the win in an overtime restart.