NASCAR insiders grade Connor Zilisch Cup Series debut, after getting taken out twice by teammates

Connor Zilisch made his NASCAR Cup Series debut on Sunday at COTA, but he got caught up in some of his teammates’ mistakes, leading to a last-place finish for the 18-year old Trackhouse Racing star.

Early in the race, Zilisch received some damage due to a move Ross Chastain made in the first turn, and then later in the afternoon, the wunderkind guessed wrong, and he plowed into Daniel Suarez as the No. 99 lost control and created a pile of smoke. Zilisch simply couldn’t catch a break.

Still, when he was on the track, the young phenom put down some impressive, carving out some awesome lap times. NASCAR insiders Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi reacted to the performance on the latest episode of The Teardown after the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix, the latter praising Zilisch’s talent.

“You could see the talent. The talent is unmistakable. Like, really, really talented driver. Going to do some big things in this sport,” Bianchi stated. “But also, young driver. A rookie in the Xfinity Series. Not even the Cup Series. A rookie in the Xfinity Series, who still is mistake-prone. That’s not a knock or a criticism, that’s just a fact.

“He still has — he’s a diamond in the rough, and he needs to smooth it out a little bit. You saw it last year in the Truck Series race here. Starts on the pole, got super excited, overshoots Turn 1. Makes a mistake in the Xfinity Series race Saturday that was an unforced mistake. You come down pit road, lights are on, didn’t see it and everything like that. You don’t need to make that mistake. And then today, the Suarez thing, there’s nothing you can do.

“That’s just the shenanigans of road course racing. Especially in that set of turns, where a guy spins out, there’s smoke, you can’t see. But the talent is there. He’s so good. He’s going to win races.”

Even though Bianchi was dazzled by Zilisch’s talent, he’s hoping to see him perform to the best of his abilities when NASCAR begins to head to their more traditional intermediate tracks. We know what he can do on road courses, but that won’t be the only discipline he has to master in the future.

“This is a road course. This is where he’s supposed to do good. We talk all about Connor and how he’s a five-tool guy. He’s got all this talent, he’s going to win a bunch. Like, this is great, and he’s going to win on road course. The schedule sets up favorably for him. There’s more road courses on this schedule than ever before, so there’s going to be opportunities,” Bianchi added. “He’s still — I need to see more ovals from him, right? And he has impressed on the ovals. He’s had some good runs.

“So, I’m trying to temper the excitement a little bit of saying, ‘Hey listen, this is where he should do well.’ These road courses are his bread and butter. You put him in a shopping cart, the dude is going to go put down fast laps and do well. He fulfilled that expectation, which is a huge thing for a young driver to do. Let’s clean up the mistakes, and now we go into this stretch of tracks — our next road course isn’t until Mexico City. So, now we’re going to the bread and butter tracks.

“This is where, if Connor Zilisch is going to become the driver that we all think he’s going to be, it’s going to be because of tracks that are upcoming. The core tracks that are quote-unquote driver tracks. The Homesteads, the Darlingtons, the Martinsvilles. We’ll see.

“Again, this is an 18-year old kid racing in the Xfinity Series for the first time. Let’s cut him some slack a little bit. But he did a really good job today. Not his fault that he got knocked out.”

All told, Connor Zilisch’s NASCAR Cup Series debut didn’t go according to plan, but it’s easy to see why his future is brighter than ever. He’ll continue to bring some more eyes to the Xfinity Series, especially as the campaign moves to tracks like Phoenix Raceway, where they’ll be this coming weekend.