Two NASCAR insiders were expecting a lot more from Connor Zilisch and Trackhouse Racing at the COTA race on Sunday. On this week’s episode of The Teardown, Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic broke down what went wrong for Zilisch, who finished 14th.
“He gets taken out twice in Turn 1,” Gluck said about Zilisch. “…He drove all the way back up and was in contention. That’s really unfortunate for him because he was going to be able to salvage a decent day, and now he’s still 32nd in points tied with Cody Ware.”
With Connor Zilisch and Shane van Gisbergen driving for Trackhouse Racing, Bianchi was hoping to see the two battle at COTA since they are strong on road courses. “They’re going to put on a masterclass display, and yet it didn’t really materialize,” Bianchi said.
“SVG was a player, but we never got that showdown. We’re still waiting for that to happen. They didn’t even qualify that well. In qualifying, they weren’t even that dominant.”
Connor Zilisch reacts to his P14 finish at COTA
For what it’s worth, Zilisch’s P14 finish is his best in the early stages of the season. And for van Gisbergen, he finished second behind Tyler Reddick on Sunday, and he won the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series COTA race on Saturday. SVG and Zilisch were the top two favorites to win at COTA on Sunday, but they still had strong overall performances.
After the race, Zilisch reacted to his work on the track. “Yeah, I mean, I feel like I drove one of the best races I’ve ever driven, and we finished 14th,” Zilisch explained, per Toby Christie of Sports Illustrated. “So, yeah, it sucks. Our Red Bull Chevrolet was really fast all day, and we were putting ourselves in a spot there on that last caution in Stage 3 to go have a chance to win the race, and yeah, got wrecked again in Turn 1. I don’t know if I need to do something different, but yeah, just one of those days.”