Connor Zilisch’s week started with some exciting news, as Hendrick Motorsports named him as the driver of its No. 48 Chevrolet for the 2028 NASCAR Cup season (NCS).
Unfortunately, the good news didn’t carry over into the race weekend for the sole NCS Rookie of the Year candidate. Driving the No. 88 Trackhouse Chevrolet, Zilisch crashed out of the event after 222 laps of racing.
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Zilisch was fading when Riley Herbst crashed ahead of him, hitting the outside wall in a heavy impact. The 20-year-old’s view of the crash was obscured by the car directly ahead of him, and while his spotter Stefan Parsons called for him to “stay low” several times, Zilisch locked up and pushed up the track — directly into the path of the now stationary No. 35 Toyota of Herbst.
He avoided hitting him directly, but still clipped Herbst as Zilisch pounded outside wall with his own car screeching to a halt soon after.
Zilisch exclaimed on the radio: “I’m so f***ing horrible! Gosh, what am I doing!”
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He immediately knew what went wrong as well, telling the team he locked up the fronts. The car lost all oil pressure after the impact and his race was over, finishing 35th.
This is now Zilisch’s ninth DNF in 25 Cup races run so far this year, and his seventh in the last 13 races. A stat that is even more jarring than that is that Zilisch has completed 5,278 laps this year, which is last among full-time drivers and over 600 fewer than the next-lowest driver on the list (Josh Berry).
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It’s been a difficult rookie campaign, marred by misfortune, ill-handling race cars and a steep learning curve. By comparison in the Next Gen era, 2025 ROTY Shane van Gisbergen recorded just four DNFs for the whole year, 2024 ROTY Carson Hocevar had only two, 2023 ROTY Ty Gibbs reached five, and 2022 ROTY Austin Cindric ended the season with four.
Eleven races remain in the 2026 season, and while Zilisch is surely looking ahead to a much-needed reset, there’s still time to end his rookie season on a more positive note.
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