WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — After a frustrating start to his rookie NASCAR Cup Series campaign, Sunday’s (May 10) Cup race at Watkins Glen International was finally Connor Zilisch’s time to shine.
And for the entire afternoon, Zilisch was living up to his billing as NASCAR’s brightest rising star.
He qualified fifth and quickly moved his way up to third, and by the start of stage two, Zilisch had climbed to second and was giving fellow Trackhouse Racing teammate and road course phenom Shane van Gisbergen a run for his money, being the only driver that was capable of staying in touch with the No. 97 all day.
After a mid-race crash at Circuit of the Americas last year in his Cup debut, a scratch at Watkins Glen last year following a fall in victory lane and a frustrating race at COTA earlier this year where he was spun out twice, Zilisch was finally putting together a clean road course race in the Cup Series.
After running in the top five all day, Zilisch found himself with a shot at the win in the closing laps, lurking behind Ty Gibbs for the lead while trying to save fuel and manage older tires.
With 10 laps to go, Zilisch was trying everything in his power to get by Gibbs and take the lead. But he eventually flat spotted a tire while trying to get by, and he had to hit pit road with a flat tire right after van Gisbergen blew past both of them on fresher tires to take the win.
Zilisch set the fastest lap and gained a handful of spots with fresh tires in the closing laps after pitting, but what was shaping up to be the best finish in his young Cup career instead ended with a disappointing 20th.
“Just upset,” Zilisch said. “At the worst I was going to finish inside the top five, probably, and have my best day in the series by far. Don’t think I could’ve beat Shane, but it’s just frustrating. When you’re so close, it sucks. …
“I feel like I did almost everything right today I could, but it just goes like that sometimes.”
For just about the entire day, Zilisch had a faster car than Gibbs. And if he could do anything over again, he would’ve done everything he could to take control of the race during the final stage while out front on his strategy.
“I should’ve passed Ty,” Zilisch remarked. “I don’t think it would’ve been any better to stay behind him. I think I could have saved more fuel in front of him and ran faster, but I’ll learn from it and be better moving forward.”
With how difficult the Cup Series is, year one is all about making improvement, and Watkins Glen was unquestionably a huge leap forward for Zilisch.
“I’ll keep my head up, and we got a couple more road courses to go to, a couple good tracks coming up for Trackhouse,” Zilisch said. “Keep my head down and keep digging.”
The finish order won’t show it, but Watkins Glen was the breakout performance from Zilisch that everyone was anticipating and expecting. But in a year where Zilisch sits 32nd in points, not being able to finish his breakout Cup performance with a top five only makes that flat tire all the more crushing.
Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly column is “Stat Sheet,” and he formerly wrote "4 Burning Questions" for three years. He also writes commentaries, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.
Find Stephen on Twitter @stephen_stumpf
Marred??? That’s what happens when you lock up the same tire 3-4 times per lap, lap after lap after lap. Eventually you wear through and it goes flat. That is 100% on the driver, 100%.