AUSTIN, Texas — The past year has been quite the experience for 17-year-old Charlotte native Connor Zilisch, and on Friday, the young man only added to the steady-growing hype around his name.
Nick Sanchez set the track record in the first round of qualifying with a 2:13.1, and celebrated accordingly. However, Zilisch made sure he couldn’t celebrate too hard for too long. Zilisch went out in the first round of group B and thrashed the old track record for the Craftsman Truck Series by more than 1.5 seconds.
The record that Sanchez beat out was held by Ross Chastain, Zilisch’s Spire Motorsports teammate. Zilisch absolutely blitzed it, and caught the attention of every single eye paying attention to his highly anticipated debut.
Then, Zilisch did it again. Before the dust had settled and NASCAR Xfinity Series qualifying began, Zilisch had set the track record and broken it again in one qualifying session with a final lap time of 2:11.983.
This feat, coupled with the fact that Zilisch won the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring already in 2024, showcases something Zilisch is very proud of – his chase of perfection. He still thinks he can get even more speed out of the truck, too.
“Yeah, 100% (I think I could go faster). I never really get to the point where I think that I’m perfect,” said Zilisch after his record setting qualifying run. “I always feel like I can get better and continue to work on what I’m doing. I’ll get back to the hotel tonight, study what I did and see where I can be better. I’ve only got 10 laps in the truck, so to say I’d be perfect is definitely a long shot.”
For a 17-year-old, Zilisch exudes collectedness. The moment never seems to big for him, whether it’s behind the wheel of an IMSA car, ARCA ride and now a NASCAR Truck. That’s on purpose, too, according to Zilisch.
“(Making mistakes) is one thing I struggled with,” said Zilisch. “I actually had to go to a sports psychologist to kind of talk about it, because I’d just get so nervous and amped up before races that I’d just go out there and completely mess up, so that’s one thing I just really had to work on.”
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