Once every few years, a young talent emerges, poised to become a star.
Every few decades one will come forward who is given the label ‘generational talent’. Connor Zilisch doesn’t fit the description for either of these. In his short time on the NASCAR scene, it’s become clear he has high potential to be even better than the drivers that have been known as generational talents.
Zilisch is destined for greatness, and he is probably going to win the 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series championship.
Before I explain all the reasons why this is true, I will add a disclaimer. If the championship format doesn’t change, Zilisch could expose its flaws like nobody has ever done before. Imagine a driver winning not five, not 10, not 15, but 20 races in a season, then going into the playoffs with a 60-point lead over second place.
Envision them advancing through the rounds of the playoffs and piling up more and more victories, before ultimately going to Phoenix Raceway, suffering a mechanical failure or getting wrecked by a backmarker on pit road and, as such, losing the championship.
Twenty or more wins and not the champion.
In the current format, it’s possible. An entire column could be written about how tragic that would be, or about it being appropriate, but I digress.
No driver in the playoff era has displayed the level of domination that I’ve described. But that level of domination is on the horizon, and we got a little taste of it last Saturday (Sept. 14) at Watkins Glen International. In a race that featured seven drivers that either currently compete full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series or have announced they will in 2025, Zilisch absolutely waxed the field.
He put on a clinic of epic proportions. By lap 6, his lead over Ty Gibbs grew to over a second. By the time the pit cycle began on lap 17, that lead had grown to over eight seconds. When the second stage began on lap 25, Zilisch restarted 13th. Just 10 laps later, he had moved up to fifth.
The only mistake made on the day by the 18-year-old was following the lead of Gibbs, a former champion. Gibbs bypassed the inner loop under caution, as did Sam Mayer and Zilisch. All three drivers were penalized and sent to the rear of the field. All three also quickly climbed the scoring pylon afterward as the others in front of them pitted for fuel, but Zilisch left Gibbs and Mayer in his dust.
The race was…
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