Connor Zilisch is, without a doubt, the most heralded driving prospect that the NASCAR Cup Series has seen in quite some time. However, 12 races into his rookie season, it would be a massive understatement to say the results have been lackluster.
This past weekend, the 19-year-old missed out on another prime opportunity to record a career-best finish, as he was running inside the top three in the closing laps of the Go Bowling at The Glen before a cut tire derailed his would-be great run.
Zilisch, who was smoking his right front tire throughout the final Stage of the race, said he wasn’t sure what led to the tire failure after climbing from his car after a 20th-place finish.
“Yeah, I’m not sure, honestly, what actually cut the tire there at the end,” Zilisch said in a post-race interview with FS1. “We were running on those tires for a long time, so I’m not surprised to see it happen, necessarily, but just frustrating. We had a really good day going. At worst, we were going to get our first top five and walk out of here with something.”
While it was the latest frustrating result for Zilisch and his No. 88 Trackhouse Racing team, you get the sense that the good days are going to start coming for the rookie racer.
Before the cut tire in Sunday’s race, Zilisch had put in an incredible driving effort, and at one point in the race was actually pressuring Shane van Gisbergen for the race lead — something that nobody else could really say they achieved in the race.
Van Gisbergen would go on to rally from a 29-second deficit with 25 laps to go to win the race by more than seven seconds over McDowell. Had Zilisch not suffered a flat tire, he could have very well been the runner-up finisher at Watkins Glen. It just wasn’t meant to be.
In addition to Sunday’s flash of brilliance in the Cup Series event, Zilisch has picked up two wins in his five NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series starts this season, which has to help bolster the confidence of a driver who has had a hard time adjusting to the NASCAR Cup Series through the opening 12 races of the season.
Justin Marks, Trackhouse Racing’s team owner, has admitted that the race team is in a rebuilding season from a competition standpoint, but after this weekend’s All-Star Race at Dover Motor Speedway is the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and that race serves as a great opportunity for Zilisch and Trackhouse Racing as a whole to keep up the momentum from Watkins Glen International.
Zilisch competed in NASCAR’s longest race last season at the age of 18, and despite being involved in a crash with Jimmie Johnson and Cole Custer on Lap 112, Zilisch was able to soldier on to a respectable 23rd-place finish in a race that he admitted he learned a lot from. Had it not been for the damage sustained earlier in the race, who knows how well Zilisch could have performed?
Overall, the Coca-Cola 600 was a high-water mark for the Trackhouse Racing team a season ago. Aside from the road course events, the 600-mile race at Charlotte was where Trackhouse flexed its muscles most.
Ross Chastain, who had to start at the rear of the field with a backup car, clawed his way all the way through the field and took the race lead from William Byron with six laps remaining. Chastain would go on to win the race.
And while Shane van Gisbergen struggled mightily on ovals during his Rookie of the Year campaign last season, he finished the Coca-Cola 600 with a solid 14th-place result.
Good days are undoubtedly coming for Zilisch, and based on Trackhouse’s performance at Charlotte Motor Speedway last May, I think the first, in a long line of good days for Zilisch, could be coming in a couple of weeks in the Coca-Cola 600.
