{"id":121935,"date":"2025-09-05T14:02:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T14:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/121935\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T14:02:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T14:02:08","slug":"nascar-royalty-richard-petty-shares-what-truly-makes-a-great-nascar-driver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/121935\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR Royalty Richard Petty Shares What Truly Makes a Great NASCAR Driver"},"content":{"rendered":"

Connor Zilisch<\/a> has been the talk of NASCAR this season. At 19 years old the North Carolina native has been fast, calm and collected like a veteran. He\u2019s already got a full time Cup Series ride with Trackhouse Racing in 2026 and is one of the most hyped prospects in recent memory.<\/p>\n

But while the hype around Zilisch continues to grow, NASCAR legend Richard Petty<\/a> has weighed in. The 7 time Cup Series champion, recently shared what he thinks separates good drivers from great ones. And in his eyes Zilisch still has some learning to do.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Richard Petty\u2019s View on Greatness\"NASCAR:<\/p>\n

Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

For Richard Petty, being dominant isn\u2019t enough. Winning from the front is one thing; being able to come back from adversity is another, he told The Athletic<\/a> in a recent interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very impressed in what he\u2019s doing, but he\u2019s in the No. 1 car, OK? He\u2019s in winning cars. So he\u2019s expected to win. In the races when he starts first or second, he stays there.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s only one part of the picture. Greatness, in his view, is tested when things don\u2019t go according to plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t see him back in 25th, working his way through traffic. So that\u2019s where the real drivers come in. And you know, he\u2019s still young enough that he\u2019s going to learn all that stuff,\u201d Petty added.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

So the checklist of a great driver for Petty is: speed, resilience and consistency.\u00a0<\/p>\n

By those measures, Zilisch has the potential, but not the full resume yet. He\u2019s shown speed and composure at the Xfinity level, but the Cup Series<\/a> will be the tougher tests Richard Petty believes are required to prove greatness.<\/p>\n

For Petty, in NASCAR, true greatness is measured not by how you win from the pole but by how you dig your way back. \u201cThe King\u201d himself knows that better than anyone, and soon Zilisch will get his chance to show he does too as he\u2019s moving to the Cup Series next year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Also Read:: Dale Earhardt Jr. Call Out Joey Logano\u2019s Take on \u2018Scared Drivers\u2019 in NASCAR Playoffs<\/a><\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Related Headlines<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Connor Zilisch has been the talk of NASCAR this season. At 19 years old the North Carolina native…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,9398,3140,634,67700,82,36954],"class_list":{"0":"post-121935","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-connor-zilisch","11":"tag-cup-series","12":"tag-nascar","13":"tag-north-carolina-native","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-trackhouse-racing"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}