Few drivers had a season like Connor Zilisch did last year in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series.
After accumulating 10 wins, 20 top fives, 23 top 10s, eight poles and finishing second in the standings, there are high expectations for the young phenom for his rookie year in the NASCAR Cup Series.
Should we temper those expectations? Maybe for the first couple months or so, as the Next Gen car is very different from the O’Reilly car.
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Let’s take a look at some of the current Cup drivers who won a ton of races in O’Reilly before transitioning to the premier series in the Next Gen car.
Ty Gibbs had 12 victories, with seven in 2022 en route to the championship. But since joining the Cup Series full time in 2023, he’s yet to find victory lane. Gibbs does have 17 top fives and 33 top 10s in his Cup career but regressed year-over-year from 2024 to 2025, finishing 19th in points.
Noah Gragson enjoyed a monster year in 2022 in O’Reilly, snagging eight wins, 21 top fives and 26 top 10s on the way to a runner-up behind Gibbs in points. Of course, he had had three full seasons before ’22, steadily improving each year. Flash forward to now, and Gragson’s been with several Cup teams, including subbing for Alex Bowman in ’22 in five races and running a partial schedule for Legacy Motor Club in 2023. The Las Vegas native then earned a top five and seven top-10 finishes with Stewart-Haas Racing in ’24, followed by another top five and three top 10s with his current team, Front Row Motorsports.
How about Austin Cindric? He took home 13 O’Reilly trophies — six in his 2020 championship season and five the following year when he almost went back-to-back. What’s his first Cup win? The biggest race of the year, the 2022 Daytona 500. The Team Penske driver has a win in each of the past two seasons and looks to be one of the few young drivers from the last few years to be somewhat consistent as far as wins go.
Zilisch has the chance to prove just how good he is, and I have no doubt that he’ll win a race this year. Gibbs was the most recent young top driver who came into Cup around Zilisch’s age, and so far has yet to meet the high marks many had for him.
What’s different for Zilisch? Well, for one, his team.
Trackhouse Racing doesn’t have the amount of prowess that other top teams have on the ovals, but that’s not the only type of track on the schedule. There’s road courses and superspeedways, both of which Zilisch’s teammates (Shane van Gisbergen and Ross Chastain) have won on. Chastain actually does have a few wins on oval racetracks: Nashville Superspeedway, Phoenix Raceway and Charlotte Motor Speedway. Van Gisbergen dominated the road courses last season, winning at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez the Chicago street course, Sonoma Raceway, Watkins Glen International and the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL.
Trackhouse is a good fit for Zilisch in this manner, as he, too, is skilled at the left and right turns. His first win in O’Reilly was at Watkins Glen in ’24; the next year he won at Circuit of the Americas, Sonoma, Watkins Glen, Portland and the ROVAL. Of course, those weren’t his only trips to victory lane, as Zilisch won on a variety of ovals as well.
Outside of NASCAR, Zilisch was part of a team with Era Motorsport that won the LMP2 class in the Rolex 24 at Daytona and was ninth overall — at 17 years old.
There are not many drivers I can think of with his talent at such a young age. Joey Logano was 19 when he first competed full time in Cup, and he took the win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway when he drove for Joe Gibbs Racing.
Kyle Larson earned his first victory in his third full-time season at around 24 years old at Michigan International Speedway. Kyle Busch was 20 his rookie year in 2005, and he took home a couple wins. More recently, Cole Custer was 22 in 2020 when won at Kentucky Speedway.
One of the all-time greats is Jeff Gordon, who in 1994 brought home two trophies, with his first in the Coca-Cola 600 in only his second full-time schedule. The next year, at age 24, Gordon won the championship after winning seven races.
Though the cars are very different now from even 2020, Zilisch has the skill set to potentially become one of the next all-time greats. Whether that happens this year remains to be seen.
But talent isn’t his only strong asset; he’s also resilient, as he pushed through two different injuries last year. Zilisch hurt his back in a crash at Talladega Superspeedway and had to watch Larson drive his car to victory lane at Texas Motor Speedway the following week. Then after winning Watkins Glen, he slipped and fell off the side of his car and broke his collarbone. He started Daytona the following race and stepped out during a caution so Parker Kligerman could sub and win for him.
But he still competed even after surgery. That ability and drive to push through adversity will take Zilisch a long way as he sets out on a new adventure. Watch as he gets acclimated to the ins and outs of the Cup Series, as we could watch history in the making this year.
Joy joined Frontstretch in 2019 as a NASCAR DraftKings writer, expanding to news and iRacing coverage in 2020. She's currently an assistant editor and involved with photos, social media and news editing. A California native, Joy was raised watching motorsports and started watching NASCAR extensively in 2001. She earned her B.A. degree in Liberal Studies at California State University Bakersfield in 2010.
A little better but Matt Kenseth has retired so move back to an actual championship format, not a silly gimmick.
Anticipatory stories always remind me of Don Cherry, the famous hockey announcer who responded to a reporter’s “what if” question with, “If my aunt had nuts she’d be my uncle.” That’s how all pre-season speculation leaves me. Sorry.