Connor Zilisch is ready to head to Circuit of the Americas this weekend with unfinished business. Last year, his trip was split down the middle, and he banked an Xfinity win on Saturday, only to watch his Sunday slip through his fingers. But now the focus is shifting from what was lost to what lies ahead, with the camp refusing to cry over spilled milk and instead keeping its eyes on the road.
So far, the start to life in the Cup Series has been rough for the Trackhouse Racing rookie. Two races in, he has yet to crack the top 30 and sits 36th in the standings. The pace has been there in qualifying, but race day has told a different story. For instance, at the Daytona 500, he started the race from 23rd before a multi-car wreck on Lap 85 ended his debut early and left him 33rd. Atlanta followed a similar pattern. After starting 31st, another pileup on Lap 223 limited him to 30th.
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Still, inside the No. 88 camp, there is no panic button in sight, and they are looking at the positives and building upon them. The team intends to keep its nose to the grindstone and keep learning. During an appearance onNASCAR Crew Call with Todd Gordon and Steve Post, Crew Chief Randall Burnett shed light on the mood.
“Just I thought he did a great job in Daytona and Atlanta. Just some unfortunate circumstances kind of didn’t get the finish that we needed. So, he had good speed, got towards the front of both races, and was doing a great job. Just kind of a victim of circumstance, in both those instances,” he said.
Burnett pointed out that reaching the Cup grid at 19 years age is not a fluke, and he knows Zilisch is talented. But more than raw pace, what matters the most is how Zilisch handles the struggles. He listens, absorbs feedback, and speaks the language engineers need. In the garage, talk is not cheap, and if a driver cannot explain what the car is doing, the team is flying blind.
That approach is why the group refuses to hang everything on finishes. Cup racing is a different beast, where the margins are thinner, the field runs deeper, and one misstep can snowball quickly. In Xfinity, a bad call can sometimes be patched over. In Cup, the door slams shut much faster. Burnett has leaned into the long game, walking Zilisch through race flow, layers of strategy, and the chess match that unfolds over a run.
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Preparation now begins well before the haulers arrive. Every venue brings its own trapdoors, from pit cycles to sudden swings in track position. The No. 88 group has been mapping out scenarios so nothing catches the driver flat-footed once the green drops. The early races may have gone sideways, but the tape shows progress. Zilisch has worked traffic, pushed toward the front, and kept his composure while chaos swirled around him.
Burnett opined that the #88 driver‘s speed is real, the composure is there, and the rest should follow if they keep grinding. The next step is to sharpen race management and turn raw runs into results week after week.
That is the aim at COTA as well. The team will try to give Zilisch a car he can lean on and put track position on his side. Signs of speed have already shown up in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, where he recently won the pole for Saturday’s race at COTA. The hope now is to carry that rhythm into Cup qualifying and finally turn promise into payoff.
The post Randall Burnett Insists Connor Zilisch’s Team is Positive Despite Underwhelming Start to Cup Career appeared first on The SportsRush.
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