While Connor Zilisch set the NASCAR world on fire a season ago, winning 10 races in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, just about everyone expected the driver to have a feast or famine rookie campaign in the NASCAR Cup Series as he embarked on the learning curve that is picking up how to drive the Next Gen car.
However, until Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway, there had been no feast for the 19-year-old Trackhouse Racing driver, only famine. But that all changed with a solid outing at Sonoma Raceway, where Zilisch competed inside the top-five for the majority of the afternoon, before fading late to finish a career-best seventh.
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While Zilisch was proud to finally score his first career top-10 finish in NASCAR Cup Series competition, the young racer wants to dive into what caused his No. 88 Chevrolet to fade so severely on the final run of the race.
“I felt like that last run, we really struggled, but up until then, I felt like we were in contention,” Zilisch said. “At least close enough. So, yeah, I’ll have to go back and study what happened on that last run; we tanked really hard. Yeah, it was a handful at the end. But still really proud of the entire team and the effort…”
In addition to his car’s handling fading in the closing laps, Zilisch also had to deal with unfavorable conditions inside his race car as his cooling suit had stopped pumping cool water over his body when he stalled out his car on pit road late in the race.
“Yeah, it was on the stall, and I just couldn’t reach down for the button with my glove on,” Zilisch said of the coolsuit issue. “Yeah, it was a hot last 30 laps, but nonetheless, really proud of the entire Trackhouse team.”
Despite the frustrating finish, Zilisch finally had something positive to write home about in regard to his NASCAR Cup Series rookie season. After 17 races in Torture City, Zilisch finally visited Funky Town.
“Really proud of my 88 team, it’s been rough lately. So, a day like this, although I felt we could have been better than that, a day like this is one we’ll take,” Zilsich said in an interview with TNT Sports. “Appreciate everybody on the WeatherTech Chevrolet, and we’ll go to Chicago and try to do it again.”
Sunday’s race at Sonoma Raceway marked the official mid-way point of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, which means if traditional rookie standards hold true, Zilisch should start to show some improvement over the final 18 races of the season, as he heads to some tracks for the second time in his young career.
However, next weekend’s event at Chicagoland Speedway will be a new experience for the young racer, as that 1.5-mile speedway has been dormant since the 2019 season. Can he continue residing in Funky Town for another week, or will it be back to Torture City for Zilisch? Only time will tell.
