Following Connor Zilisch’s dominance in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series in 2025, the expectation was for him to come into the Cup Series and hit the ground running. But that might have been a naive presumption. He sits 32nd in the points table after the first three races of the season.
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However, Zilisch has found a supporter in Denny Hamlin. The veteran believes that better days are ahead for the youngster. Regardless of finishing positions, he has been pleased with Zilisch’s performances, and the same has led him to believe that he will pose a tough competition to Shane van Gisbergen on road courses in the coming days.
Hamlin said, “I think SVG is about to have company in the road course domination bracket. He’s already got the racecraft to pass and make speed. He didn’t qualify well. Didn’t practice great.
“He had good speed, but not great speed. But as the weekend went on, he just kept getting better and faster. So, I think that we’re going to be talking about him for definitely a handful of races here,” the Joe Gibbs Racing driver added.
Young drivers who come into the sport usually need a period of settling in. Hamlin pointed out the same and touched on how Zilisch had been a bit aggressive at Atlanta, wanting to get things right. The 19-year-old did not need a lot of time to adjust to the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series car. He had a bunch of average results in the first 10 races of the season.
But once he got to Charlotte in May, there had been no force big enough to stop him. Perhaps we will see the same pattern from him in the Cup Series.
Zilisch proves he belongs on the big stage
The 14th-place result he secured at COTA on Sunday did not come easy. Turn 1 at the iconic circuit is a highly challenging area for even experienced drivers to tackle. And Zilisch got spun there not once, but twice during the race. To come back from that deficit and secure a top-15 result was quite the achievement.
At the end of the day, while he wasn’t entirely satisfied with the result, he was proud of what he had done. He even considered the race to be one of the best he has driven and said, “It was good. Just as a racecar driver, I’m not satisfied, but I showed I can do it.” Sooner or later, he is bound to find himself in Victory Lane. The question is whether that will be on a road course first.
van Gisbergen must already be going through a period of shock after losing the race to Tyler Reddick. To have Zilisch on his back will only add more pressure on the Kiwi.
