Welcome to the NASCAR Cup Series, kid.
Connor Zilisch is three races into his full-time career at the top table of the sport and if it would be overstating matters to say it's been a nightmare start...it wouldn't be a big overstatement.
To say that he, as a driver, has been disappointing early? That's an idea that pretty much everyone in the sport would push back against. Let's lay out a timeline before we get into it.
NASCAR RESULTS: Tyler Reddick makes history with flawless COTA performance
Zilisch's debut season so far
Last year's Xfinity Series runner-up started fairly gingerly at the Daytona 500, running in the back half for most of Stage 1 before coming to the front for a couple of laps early in Stage 2.
When he got there, he almost immediately got just a little loose in Turn 4, bouncing off Justin Allgaier a couple of times and prompting a stack-up behind him which ultimately resulted in a wreck, initially getting hit by a spinning Ty Gibbs before sliding back up the track and getting run into again by Todd Gilliland.
That more or less ruined Zilisch's race on the spot, and he finished his first day in the Trackhouse Racing No. 88 multiple laps down and classified 33rd.
After that, a series of unfortunate events. Zilisch was nothing but an innocent bystander when Joey Logano knocked Denny Hamlin into a spin the following week at Atlanta, getting caught in the wreckage and having his day ended some 50 laps early.
At COTA, it looked like he'd smashed a mirror over a black cat's head while walking under a tunnel made of ladders. It was a very clean race from start to finish, and even the drivers who did get themselves in trouble tended to confine the damage to themselves (Josh Berry slapping a tyre pack, Noah Gragson spinning into the wall, Carson Hocevar hitting the wall after the white flag had waved).
The two major incidents which saw a car spun around and left prone on the track both had Zilisch as the loser. The first saw Daniel Suarez tag the No. 88 and spin him at the restart to begin Stage 2, and the second saw a chain reaction of bumps at a late restart which reached Zane Smith and Zilisch...and spun them both out.
Two incidents which you could reasonably blame on another driver. Zilisch sent to the back of the field (from seventh and fourth positions respectively) each time.
So what?
So...three races, three weekends impacted by wrecks, nothing much to learn except 'sometimes racing sucks'? Not quite.
There are some positives to take, first of all. The fact that Zilisch dragged himself through the field from a low qualifying spot to seventh, only to be sent backward, then all the way back up to fourth, sent backward again, and still finish the day 14th? That's a seriously impressive show of pace.
He, rather than team-mate and road course monster Shane van Gisbergen, looked the most likely to take the fight to winner Tyler Reddick on the last run before he was spun out. That's the Connor Zilisch everyone watched dominate the Xfinity Series in 2025.
On the other hand, that last restart at COTA was an accident waiting to happen when the teenage took the wide outside line at Turn 1. Inside the last 20 laps, everyone getting aggressive, getting a little more free with their willingness to nudge other cars in close proximity? That often doesn't end well for the guy on the outside of that corner.
The Daytona wreck wasn't a great moment in an otherwise essentially fine race and, while Atlanta wasn't his fault in the slightest, he'd been grouped with his team-mate as 'absolute weapons' who were 'gonna crash all of us at some point' by Joey Logano earlier in the race, and hadn't exactly been showing blistering pace.
What's this all to say? If anything, it's just a reminder of what we knew coming into the season, but maybe needed a couple of nudges on. Connor Zilisch is a 19-year-old rookie driving for a team which is on the fringes of contention. He's going to drive like it. Ignore the fact that he's 32nd on points, because that's not what this season is about.
He's a prodigious talent, but there's no substitute in NASCAR racing for experience, and having the right group of people around you. Hopefully he has the latter, but it's going to be a while before he gets the former.
Let the kid make his mistakes. Let the other drivers in the field chew him out when he makes them, that's a learning experience too. Just consider putting a small wager on him whenever a road course comes around, and wait a couple of years. Crops don't grow to harvest the day you plant them – they need time, attention, and the right conditions.
As long as Zilisch keeps getting those, he'll be spectacular. We just have to wait.
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