Is a 20-Year-Old Driver Still Considered an Elite Prospect Despite an Awful Rookie Season in 2026?
In 2025, Connor Zilisch was the biggest name in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. He earned 10 wins while driving for Jr Motorsports, and the then-19-year-old barely missed out on winning the 2025 championship. That was still enough for Zilisch to land a Cup Series ride with Trackhouse Racing in the 88 WeatherTech Camaro for 2026. He would be replacing Shane Van Gisbergen, who would be replacing Daniel Suarez in the 99 and renumbering it to the 97. 2022 Final Four contender Ross Chastain also joined him.
The 2026 season has been miserable for Zilisch. The 88 Chevrolet is currently second-to-last in points, only ahead of Cody Ware. The 20-year-old has only one top-10 in 26 starts and was involved in an incident in 10 races. His season’s biggest lowlight was finishing last four times in a month, plus a 37th-place finish at San Diego. Whenever anything was going the 20-year-old’s way, something would happen that caused him to crash out. Many of these incidents happened very early on in the race as well.
Many NASCAR fans started to question whether the 2025 O’Reilly Series Superstar was rushed to the Cup Series, but is Zilisch’s bad season really because of his talent? Connor is not the only driver at Trackhouse who is having a rough season. Despite the North Carolina native being worse, Chastain's 1 Chevrolet has also been disappointing. A driver who is usually in the Chase field, Chastain is currently 18th in the points with three races left. He currently sits 48 points behind Austin Cindric for the final Chase spot.
The North Carolina Driver is one of the most resilient drivers in NASCAR. He uses his resources wisely, and his mentorship from Josh Wise and Dale Earnhardt Jr helped him earn rides in ARCA and the O’Reilly Series. In his 2025 Season, Zilisch recovered from a broken collarbone to race at Daytona just two weeks after the break. In that race, he was replaced by Parker Kligerman after 20 laps, who went on to give him the win, his seventh win on the season.
It is easy to say that Zilisch was never ready to go full-time in the Cup Series in 2026, but the real reason for his bad season is likely Trackhouse. The ‘Hail Melon’ at Martinsville to get the 33-year-old Chastain got Trackhouse on the map and attention from the media. Team Owner Justin Marks tried signing Zane Smith to a developmental deal in 2024. Smith was loaned to Spire Motorsports, but dropped at the end of the year because of poor performance. There is a possibility that Marks is getting in his head that he has better equipment for developing than he really does, and that even Connor couldn’t avoid the inevitable setbacks.
Team owners still see Zilisch as a generational talent despite his struggles in the 88 car. He is one of the drivers rumored to move to Hendrick Motorsports in 2028, replacing Alex Bowman once Bowman officially retires. The 20-year-old from North Carolina will have nothing to worry about for the next few years in terms of finding rides. It will be interesting to see how he performs in his sophomore year in 2027, and whether he shows signs of his record-setting 2025 self.
