Did You Notice? … Connor Zilisch is wiping clean the NASCAR record books… as a teenager? At age 19, Zilisch is bulldozing through NASCAR Xfinity Series competition with a run that hasn’t been seen in the division’s 43-year history.
Despite two separate injuries, one of which caused him to miss a race, Zilisch ran away with the 2025 NXS regular season championship. In the 14 races since returning from a lower back injury suffered at Talladega Superspeedway, Zilisch has racked up 14 straight top-five finishes.
He’s won eight races during that stretch, including seven of the last eight. Keep in mind that streak includes racing with a broken collarbone suffered while trying to climb from his racecar at Watkins Glen International. (Parker Kligerman gets an assist – he finished off a win at Daytona International Speedway, replacing Zilisch midway through in the first week of his collarbone recovery).
Just three weeks after the injury, Zilisch was dominant at the demanding Portland International Raceway road course, leading 70 of 78 laps from the pole. He takes a four-race win streak into the playoffs, tying a series record set by Sam Ard (1983) and Noah Gragson (2022).
The stat line, if it ended now, would still be one of the best seasons in NXS history: nine wins, seven poles and 750 laps led. Only two drivers, Ard and Kyle Busch, have won more during a single season. And neither one of them won seven times over an eight-race span, easily one of the most impressive NASCAR achievements ever recorded in the post-Richard Petty modern era.
Zilisch may ultimately fall short of the NXS wins record: he’d need to win five of the final seven to eclipse Busch’s 13-win performance of 2010. But let’s keep in mind that Busch did that while running as a full-time Cup Series regular; he already had a well-established career in the sport.
Zilisch hasn’t even run full-time in Cup.
That all changes in 2026 when Zilisch will take over the ride at Trackhouse Racing vacated by Daniel Suarez. So far, in a limited three-race stint Zilisch has been about what you’d expect from a rookie: a 23.7 average finish, no laps led and a best result of 11th at Atlanta Motor Speedway this summer.
But Zilisch is on the verge of this promotion with perhaps the best record of any driver at age 19 in NASCAR, ever. Here’s a look at where other Hall of Fame-level or championship-contending drivers were at this age…
Jeff Gordon: On his way to an 11th-place finish in the point standings in his first year as a full-time NXS driver (no wins).
Ryan Blaney: Earning his second career win in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series en route to a sixth-place finish in the final standings.
Kyle Busch: Just five wins (pocket change for him) and second in the NXS standings in his final season before moving up to Cup.
Joey Logano: Earned his first career Cup win as a rookie at age 19 while posting five NASCAR Xfinity Series victories on a limited schedule (22 starts).
Chase Elliott: Elliott, already a NXS champion at age 18, followed it up with a runner-up finish in the point standings during his sophomore season. But Elliott finished his full-time NXS career with four wins (compared to Zilisch’s 10… and counting) and fewer laps led before his ascension to the Cup level.
William Byron: Perhaps the best record against where Zilisch is now. Byron won seven times at the Truck Series level at age 18, ultimately finishing fifth in the championship there before winning the NXS title at age 19, adding another four wins to his resume. Byron’s 11 victories and five poles combined stand as a benchmark for lower series success at this age.
For Zilisch to be mentioned in the same breath as these drivers bodes well for him entering 2026. What’s also important? His growing ability to give NASCAR what it’s been missing for almost a decade now: crossover appeal. His Watkins Glen flub, while embarrassing, continues to go viral and broke through to millions of NFL fans this week.
The reach of this tweet, at the time of publication, was 2.7 million – roughly one million more than the total viewership of the NASCAR Cup Series race at World Wide Technology Raceway this past Sunday night (Sept. 7). It’s one of many ways Zilisch, who’s up to 54,000 followers on Instagram, is positioning himself to be the sport’s next generation Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Of course, to do that he’s going to have to win, and quickly. It took Byron nearly three full seasons to win at the Cup level. Same for Elliott. Since Logano’s 2009 triumph at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, only a handful of drivers have won in their first full-time season.
But there’s one big exception that gives hope to Zilisch’s future endeavors with Trackhouse: Shane van Gisbergen. Four victories on road courses have already given SVG the all-time rookie record, and he’s in contention to go deep in the championship chase. If Zilisch could repeat some version of that? With SVG and Ross Chastain on the same team? Trackhouse could suddenly give Hendrick a run for its money at Chevrolet in 2026.
It would also launch Zilisch into a stratosphere we haven’t seen a NASCAR driver in in a generation. There’s the NXS title still to go, but whatever happens the next seven races, there have been some lofty expectations attached to this driver and his short-term future.
Did You Notice?… Quick hits before taking off…
- Chris Buescher has quietly put together an average finish of 13.8, fifth best in the Cup Series this year and second to only his 12.1 average in 2023 (when he made a run at the Championship 4). It still feels like RFK Racing has at least one win in them after their disappointing playoff miss, and Bristol Motor Speedway lines up well with their strengths.
- Kyle Busch has now gone 16 straight races in the Cup Series without leading a lap. Sixteen! I can’t emphasize this streak enough; Busch had never gone 10-plus Cup races in his career without leading a lap until this summer.
Follow Tom Bowles on X at @NASCARBowles
The author of Did You Notice? (Wednesdays) Tom spends his time overseeing Frontstretch’s 40+ staff members as its majority owner and Editor-in-Chief. Based outside Philadelphia, Bowles is a two-time Emmy winner in NASCAR television and has worked in racing production with FOX, TNT, and ESPN while appearing on-air for SIRIUS XM Radio and FOX Sports 1's former show, the Crowd Goes Wild. He most recently consulted with SRX Racing, helping manage cutting-edge technology and graphics that appeared on their CBS broadcasts during 2021 and 2022.
You can find Tom’s writing here, at CBSSports.com and Athlonsports.com, where he’s been an editorial consultant for the annual racing magazine for 15 years.