By Luis Torres, Staff Writer/Photographer
Connor Zilisch showed his tenacity of overcoming adversity despite finishing 14th in Sunday’s DuraMAX Texas Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas.
Twice on restarts in the treacherous, every driver for themselves opening turn, Zilisch went from being inside the top-10 to being turned around which impacted his afternoon.
The first taking place on Lap 25 when Daniel Suarez clipped sent him around in front of the pack behind them. Both wreck avoidances from Austin Dillon and Joey Logano played a role of only Zilisch being involved.
https://twitter.com/NASCARONFOX/status/2028224253020246478
No surprise, Zilisch wasn’t pleased with his former Trackhouse Racing teammate as the incident marked the second year in a row where the two tangled.
Last year, it resulted in an early exit for Zilisch. This time around, it knocked him down the running order and ended up 31st in the stage.
"F*** Suarez, dude."
Connor Zilisch
— Jordan Bianchi (@Jordan_Bianchi) March 1, 2026
Once a long stretch of green flag racing happened in the final stage, Zilisch became one of the fastest cars in the field. As a result, the 19-year-old saw himself inside the top-five before his teammate Ross Chastain losing a right rear wheel brought out the third caution of the day, allowing an opportunity for the rookie to fight for the win.
When the race resumed on Lap 79, Zilisch was ready to pounce after restarting on the second row outside line. The battle would come to end after Austin Cindric clipped the side of Zane Smith which ended up punting the No. 88 Red Bull Chevrolet around in Turn 1 again.
Connor Zilisch goes around.. again…@AlwaysRaceDay https://t.co/ftBVr9Kp2n pic.twitter.com/1RuZsBpNe4
— Mr Matthew CFB (@MrMatthew_CFB) March 1, 2026
The contact eliminated Zilisch from contending for his maiden victory in the NASCAR Cup Series, but drove hard to salvage as many points as possible in the remaining 17 laps.
Gradually, Zilisch pick pocketed track positions which propelled him from being in the top-30 to a top-15 result. When the dust settled, Zilisch ended up with a season-best 14th, a far better result than his previous two starts where he finished no better than 30th.
Naturally, as a fierce racer, Zilisch wasn’t satisfied with his result after the type of speed his No. 88 machine had in Austin.
“Our No. 88 Red Bull Chevrolet was really fast all day,” said Zilisch. “We were putting ourselves in a spot there at the end at that last caution to have a chance to go win the race and got wrecked again in turn one.
“I don’t know if I need to do something different, but it was just one of those days. It was good to drive up through the field again. As a racecar driver, I’m not satisfied, but I proved that I could do it.”
The top-15 effort improved Zilisch from 36th in points to 32nd heading into Phoenix Raceway (Sunday at 3:30 p.m. ET on FS1) for the first time in his young Cup career.
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