Zilisch made Cup Series debut with impressive and fiery weekend at COTA
Connor Zilisch had a fiery NASCAR Cup Series debut.
Literally.
The 18-year-old's impressive weekend at the Circuit of the Americas ended early when he couldn't avoid a spin by Trackhouse Racing teammate Daniel Suarez early in the final stage Sunday.
The collision sent Zilisch hard into the tire barrier and the car caught fire as he climbed out.
It was a frustrating end to an otherwise impressive race for a youngster who hopes to become the youngest winner in Cup Series history. He started 14th, dropped back after early contact with another car, and had worked his way back to the top 15 before the wipeout.
'You did amazing buddy," crew chief Darian Grubb told Zilisch on the team radio. "You did nothing wrong today. You did an incredible job driving way up through there.'
The crash spoiled his race, but Zilisch wasn't about to let it spoil the overall experience of his race weekend. Zilisch won the Xfinity race Saturday and was among the Cup Series practice leaders.
'His race craft is really good for his age,' Trackhouse's Shane van Gisbergen said before the race.
Had Zilisch stayed in Sunday's race, he might have had a chance to push for the win.
'We had a really fast Red Bull Chevrolet," Zilisch said. 'I had so much fun preparing for this event. It was a lot of fun passing a lot of guys I used to watch on TV growing up.'
Zilisch has been pegged as a future star. He has won 16 races across seven different series since 2024, including a class victory at Rolex 24 at Daytona last year.
His Xfinity series win Saturday was his second in that series. He started on pole and was forced to the back because of a pit lane penalty. Then he dominated the field in getting back to the front for the win.
Zilisch is a development driver for Trackhouse. The team has not announced when he will race in the Cup Series again.
'Hopefully, I'll get another chance to do this again," Zilisch said. "I had an absolute blast driving through the field.'
___
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Washington Post
2 hours ago
- Washington Post
NASCAR goes south of the border to grow fan base with its 1st Cup Series race in Mexico City
NASCAR's first international Cup Series race of the modern era is all about the eyeballs, specifically new fans in the Mexico City market. NASCAR will be on the track Friday for the first of three days of racing at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez, one of the most popular stops on the Formula 1 calendar and Ben Kennedy's newest project. The great-grandson of NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., Kennedy has taken the family business beyond its comfortable confines before. Kennedy in 2022 moved the preseason exhibition Clash from its longtime home at Daytona International Speedway in Florida to a temporary track built inside Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum . Kennedy this year moved the Clash to The Madhouse — the historic Bowman Gray Stadium, which had last hosted a Cup race in 1971, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. NASCAR under Kennedy also returned to North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Carolina for the first time since 1977 when the All-Star race was moved there three years ago. He allowed dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway, a hybrid road course and oval at Charlotte Motor Speedway, alongside his biggest undertaking: NASCAR's first street race, held in downtown Chicago. He also had his eyes set on expanding internationally, which will come Sunday with the first points-paying international race in the Cup Series since 1958. It is only third time in 77 years that NASCAR's top series will run an event that counts in the championship outside the United States. The last two times were in Canada; the Cup Series also has held exhibitions in Japan and Australia. 'Our biggest opportunity to grow as a sport is international,' Kennedy said when he announced Mexico City was replacing one of the two races on the schedule allocated to Richmond International Raceway. 'The U.S. is always going to be our mainstay and our next opportunity was to expand internationally,' he said. 'We said we've wanted to do this for a long time, but also needed to make sure it was the right time, the right partners and the right location. Mexico City checked every box. To be in one of the biggest cities globally — over 20 million people that live in the city — is a massive opportunity for us to bring the sport.' The weekend includes the second-tier Xfinity Series and the NASCAR Mexico Series. It's a strong return to a market that devours the entire F1 weekend ticket package within an hour of them becoming available. Mexicans have proven to be rabid motorsports fans but haven't gotten a chance to see NASCAR's big names since 2008, the final year of a four-year run of Xfinity races. Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. were winners during the four-year stretch. Daniel Suarez, the former Xfinity champion and native of Monterrey, is NASCAR's face of the event. He raced the circuit 13 times with a different layout in the NASCAR Mexico Series, and three of Suarez's starts were wins. 'I'm super excited for the event. I'm super excited to live the moment because the first time is going to only happen once,' Suarez said. 'I'm really trying to be as present as possible, enjoy the moment and try to execute the best possible weekend that we can. We know that we are capable of winning the race, but that's not the goal. The goal is the execution of the entire weekend, and hopefully the win is the result of the execution part.' The planning that has gone into Mexico City, one of 38 events on the Cup schedule, began about a year ago. NASCAR has worked on myriad details, beginning with how to get nearly 200 trucks hauling race cars and equipment from Michigan International Speedway into Mexico City. NASCAR official Tom Bryant has spearheaded the organizational logistics and made multiple trips to the border crossing in Laredo, Texas, to meet with customs officials from both nations. The drive from Michigan to Mexico City is about 40 hours, not including the tedious customs crossing, where all the equipment and tools on every NASCAR hauler must be documented on an exhaustive manifest. Cup Series teams cars were scheduled for a Monday night arrival at Laredo, with crossing scheduled for Tuesday and arrival at the track on Thursday. 'It's been a ton of coordination moving lots of people and lots of stuff safely and efficiently across a great distance and an international border,' Bryant said on the 'Hauler Talk' NASCAR podcast. 'There is a lot to it, but the key to it is you just have to define the problem. We've got to get these people and these things from this point to that point within a certain time period,' he said. 'How do we do it in a way that's going to best position us to be ready to go to work as soon as we hit the ground down there? Because this is a pretty tight window.' ___ AP auto racing:
2 hours ago
NASCAR goes south of the border to grow fan base with its 1st Cup Series race in Mexico City
NASCAR's first international Cup Series race of the modern era is all about the eyeballs, specifically new fans in the Mexico City market. NASCAR will be on the track Friday for the first of three days of racing at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez, one of the most popular stops on the Formula 1 calendar and Ben Kennedy's newest project. The great-grandson of NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., Kennedy has taken the family business beyond its comfortable confines before. Kennedy in 2022 moved the preseason exhibition Clash from its longtime home at Daytona International Speedway in Florida to a temporary track built inside Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Kennedy this year moved the Clash to The Madhouse — the historic Bowman Gray Stadium, which had last hosted a Cup race in 1971, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. NASCAR under Kennedy also returned to North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Carolina for the first time since 1977 when the All-Star race was moved there three years ago. He allowed dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway, a hybrid road course and oval at Charlotte Motor Speedway, alongside his biggest undertaking: NASCAR's first street race, held in downtown Chicago. He also had his eyes set on expanding internationally, which will come Sunday with the first points-paying international race in the Cup Series since 1958. It is only third time in 77 years that NASCAR's top series will run an event that counts in the championship outside the United States. The last two times were in Canada; the Cup Series also has held exhibitions in Japan and Australia. 'Our biggest opportunity to grow as a sport is international,' Kennedy said when he announced Mexico City was replacing one of the two races on the schedule allocated to Richmond International Raceway. 'The U.S. is always going to be our mainstay and our next opportunity was to expand internationally," he said. "We said we've wanted to do this for a long time, but also needed to make sure it was the right time, the right partners and the right location. Mexico City checked every box. To be in one of the biggest cities globally — over 20 million people that live in the city — is a massive opportunity for us to bring the sport.' The weekend includes the second-tier Xfinity Series and the NASCAR Mexico Series. It's a strong return to a market that devours the entire F1 weekend ticket package within an hour of them becoming available. Mexicans have proven to be rabid motorsports fans but haven't gotten a chance to see NASCAR's big names since 2008, the final year of a four-year run of Xfinity races. Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. were winners during the four-year stretch. Daniel Suarez, the former Xfinity champion and native of Monterrey, is NASCAR's face of the event. He raced the circuit 13 times with a different layout in the NASCAR Mexico Series, and three of Suarez's starts were wins. 'I'm super excited for the event. I'm super excited to live the moment because the first time is going to only happen once,' Suarez said. "I'm really trying to be as present as possible, enjoy the moment and try to execute the best possible weekend that we can. We know that we are capable of winning the race, but that's not the goal. The goal is the execution of the entire weekend, and hopefully the win is the result of the execution part.' The planning that has gone into Mexico City, one of 38 events on the Cup schedule, began about a year ago. NASCAR has worked on myriad details, beginning with how to get nearly 200 trucks hauling race cars and equipment from Michigan International Speedway into Mexico City. NASCAR official Tom Bryant has spearheaded the organizational logistics and made multiple trips to the border crossing in Laredo, Texas, to meet with customs officials from both nations. The drive from Michigan to Mexico City is about 40 hours, not including the tedious customs crossing, where all the equipment and tools on every NASCAR hauler must be documented on an exhaustive manifest. Cup Series teams cars were scheduled for a Monday night arrival at Laredo, with crossing scheduled for Tuesday and arrival at the track on Thursday. 'It's been a ton of coordination moving lots of people and lots of stuff safely and efficiently across a great distance and an international border,' Bryant said on the 'Hauler Talk' NASCAR podcast. 'There is a lot to it, but the key to it is you just have to define the problem. We've got to get these people and these things from this point to that point within a certain time period," he said. "How do we do it in a way that's going to best position us to be ready to go to work as soon as we hit the ground down there? Because this is a pretty tight window.'
Hamilton Spectator
2 hours ago
- Hamilton Spectator
NASCAR goes south of the border to grow fan base with its 1st Cup Series race in Mexico City
NASCAR's first international Cup Series race of the modern era is all about the eyeballs, specifically new fans in the Mexico City market. NASCAR will be on the track Friday for the first of three days of racing at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez, one of the most popular stops on the Formula 1 calendar and Ben Kennedy's newest project. The great-grandson of NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., Kennedy has taken the family business beyond its comfortable confines before. Kennedy in 2022 moved the preseason exhibition Clash from its longtime home at Daytona International Speedway in Florida to a temporary track built inside Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum . Kennedy this year moved the Clash to The Madhouse — the historic Bowman Gray Stadium, which had last hosted a Cup race in 1971, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. NASCAR under Kennedy also returned to North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Carolina for the first time since 1977 when the All-Star race was moved there three years ago. He allowed dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway, a hybrid road course and oval at Charlotte Motor Speedway, alongside his biggest undertaking: NASCAR's first street race, held in downtown Chicago. He also had his eyes set on expanding internationally, which will come Sunday with the first points-paying international race in the Cup Series since 1958. It is only third time in 77 years that NASCAR's top series will run an event that counts in the championship outside the United States. The last two times were in Canada; the Cup Series also has held exhibitions in Japan and Australia. 'Our biggest opportunity to grow as a sport is international,' Kennedy said when he announced Mexico City was replacing one of the two races on the schedule allocated to Richmond International Raceway. 'The U.S. is always going to be our mainstay and our next opportunity was to expand internationally,' he said. 'We said we've wanted to do this for a long time, but also needed to make sure it was the right time, the right partners and the right location. Mexico City checked every box. To be in one of the biggest cities globally — over 20 million people that live in the city — is a massive opportunity for us to bring the sport.' The weekend includes the second-tier Xfinity Series and the NASCAR Mexico Series. It's a strong return to a market that devours the entire F1 weekend ticket package within an hour of them becoming available. Mexicans have proven to be rabid motorsports fans but haven't gotten a chance to see NASCAR's big names since 2008, the final year of a four-year run of Xfinity races. Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. were winners during the four-year stretch. Daniel Suarez, the former Xfinity champion and native of Monterrey, is NASCAR's face of the event. He raced the circuit 13 times with a different layout in the NASCAR Mexico Series, and three of Suarez's starts were wins. 'I'm super excited for the event. I'm super excited to live the moment because the first time is going to only happen once,' Suarez said. 'I'm really trying to be as present as possible, enjoy the moment and try to execute the best possible weekend that we can. We know that we are capable of winning the race, but that's not the goal. The goal is the execution of the entire weekend, and hopefully the win is the result of the execution part.' The planning that has gone into Mexico City, one of 38 events on the Cup schedule, began about a year ago. NASCAR has worked on myriad details, beginning with how to get nearly 200 trucks hauling race cars and equipment from Michigan International Speedway into Mexico City. NASCAR official Tom Bryant has spearheaded the organizational logistics and made multiple trips to the border crossing in Laredo, Texas, to meet with customs officials from both nations. The drive from Michigan to Mexico City is about 40 hours, not including the tedious customs crossing, where all the equipment and tools on every NASCAR hauler must be documented on an exhaustive manifest. Cup Series teams cars were scheduled for a Monday night arrival at Laredo, with crossing scheduled for Tuesday and arrival at the track on Thursday. 'It's been a ton of coordination moving lots of people and lots of stuff safely and efficiently across a great distance and an international border,' Bryant said on the 'Hauler Talk' NASCAR podcast. 'There is a lot to it, but the key to it is you just have to define the problem. We've got to get these people and these things from this point to that point within a certain time period,' he said. 'How do we do it in a way that's going to best position us to be ready to go to work as soon as we hit the ground down there? Because this is a pretty tight window.' ___ AP auto racing:
