Connor Zilisch will formally wrap up the NASCAR Cup Series Rookie of the Year honors this weekend in what’s been an important season for the 20-year-old, both on and off track. The driver of the No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet earned only two top-10s – seventh place at both the Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway road course this summer and at the World Wide Technology Raceway in September.
He’s led a total of nine laps – eight at the San Diego street course and another at Kansas. And he had six top-10 qualifying efforts including a best start of third place only two weeks ago at the Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. He heads into Sunday’s season finale ranked 33rd in the series points standings.
More big news out of his rookie campaign was an announcement this Fall that he will move to the Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 in 2028 following immediately in the footsteps of Alex Bowman and seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson before that.
“I’d be lying if I said it was the season I’d hoped for,” Zilisch conceded. “It certainly hasn’t been a picture-perfect year by any means, but I’m just glad the last few months we’ve started to show some growth, and I feel like I’ve gotten better as the year has gone on. It’s certainly taken time.
“There’s been some rough patches for me, for sure, and that’s been both mentally and inside the racecar. It’s definitely taken a toll on me, but these last few months, I feel like we’ve been qualifying better, running better, and at least in the game, staying on the lead lap and just doing the basics.
“Hopefully, we can continue that going into next year. But yeah, certainly not the year I hoped for or wanted, but I’m proud of myself for sticking through it and getting some results on the back end.”
Zilisch said the big gains he’ll take forward were more mental.
“For me, I didn’t realize how hard it is,” Zilisch said of not running up front for really the first time in young career. “My entire life racing, I’ve raced for wins. I’ve been the guy to beat. I’ve showed up to the track and expected to win. This year, I haven’t had that.
“I think trying to find motivation when you’re not racing for the win every weekend is something that I’ve never experienced in my life. I’ve never dealt with that kind of adversity. I had to find a way to keep myself motivated and my team motivated through races where you’re not contending for wins every week. I’d say that’s been the biggest thing that I’ve learned is just trying to find goals that are achievable and just focus on those and block out the outside noise because it’s really easy to focus on the results sheet Sunday night and see where you finish.”
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