- Hamlin takes aim at entire organisation over Zilisch and Chastain’s recent runs.
- Van Gisbergen is delivering stronger results with the same setup and team.
- Zilisch feels more confident after his recent Bristol NOAPS win.
Connor Zilisch turned heads at Bristol Motor Speedway, winning the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race by outlasting Kyle Larson on worn tires, even as Larson led most laps. A late pit call from crew chief Rodney Childers tipped the scales in Zilisch’s favor. Yet in the Cup Series, the 19-year-old has found the going tough. There have been flashes, but nothing he can hang his hat on.
Denny Hamlin weighed in on his podcast about his Cup stint. But instead of pointing the finger at the driver, Hamlin believes it’s an overall organizational issue.
Denny Hamlin blames team for Ross Chastain and Connor Zilisch’s underwhelming runs
Zilisch won 10 races last season in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, leading the win chart. With that form, and with Cup drivers in the same field last year, the expectation was that he would at least hold his own at the top level. So far, that has not panned out. His best finish came at Circuit of the Americas, where he climbed to 14th despite starting from the rear more than once.
Hamlin connected that struggle to the form of Ross Chastain, pointing out that Chastain, who has even challenged the drivers like Hamlin, Kyle Busch, and Chase Elliott at the front, has also been off the pace, even after showing a turn of speed in the opening stage at Bristol. To Hamlin, that points to setup issues on the team’s part.
Hamlin said, “Truckhouse has some issues. I mean, I say that simply because Ross 20th in points. That’s not who Ross is. He’s clearly better than that. Connor is not performing like we thought. If Ross is my comp, I’d say Connor’s really running about the offset to Ross that you would think he would run. The problem is Ross is 15 spots worse than what you would project.”
“You just keep rowing the boat. You know, some of it comes with time. Again, I don’t know how much of it is Con or how much of it is car. If his teammates were up there winning races and whatnot, I would throw more of a caution to the Zilisch thing. But I just think that they’re struggling as an organization right now. And I think they would admit that,” he continued.
However, at the same time, Shane van Gisbergen, who joined Trackhouse Racing with a view to stacking road course wins while learning ovals, has posted steadier results. He finished second at COTA, the lone road course so far. On ovals, he has also held his own, with a sixth-place finish in Duel 1 at Daytona, a top-10 run at Atlanta Motor Speedway, an 11th-place finish at Phoenix Raceway, and another 11th at Martinsville Speedway after starting inside the top five.
That contrast raises a question mark about how SVG, new to oval racing, is bringing home results better than Ross Chastain and Connor Zilisch, both with more laps on such tracks.
Saturday’s win restored Zilisch’s confidence as ‘Sunday Racing Will Take It Away From You.’
For a driver tipped as a future force, the step up has been a trial by fire. And that has happened to many drivers in the past, including Noah Gragson and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Pace has shown up in bursts, but results have not followed, leaving Zilisch in search of both speed and belief.
That is what made the Bristol O’Reilly Auto Parts Series win carry a lot of weight. It came in the middle of Cup struggles and served as a reset for him, the kind many young drivers need when the top tier tests them at every turn.
In lower series, raw speed can paper over inexperience, but in the Cup field, there is no such cushion. The pack runs close, the bar is high, and even a small slip costs track position. Connor Zilisch has felt that firsthand. Against that, the Bristol result was a reminder that he has the talent and can race; it’s just the Cup struggles that have nothing to do with his racing skills.
He said as much on SiriusXM NASCAR. “It was good to kind of prove to myself that I can do it still and that, you know, I haven’t completely lost all the talent that I have. So, yeah, it was reassuring for sure to go back.”
“And, you know, at least get some confidence and remember kind of who I am, because that Sunday racing will take it away from you really quick and, you know, it’ll chew you up and spit you out. And it’s good to at least you know could be able to get a little confidence from a win on saturday.”
For now, one result does not wipe away the rest. It does, however, put a marker down that Zilisch has what it takes to win, even as the Cup Series continues to test it.
