Rookie Connor Zilisch found midrace trouble in his NASCAR Cup Series debut Sunday, crashing after a collision with Trackhouse Racing teammate Daniel Suárez at Circuit of The Americas.
Zilisch started 14th in the 37-car field in Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix and rallied after sustaining damage in a Turn 1, Lap 1 fray after the green flag. The 18-year-old driver, however, could not avoid Suarez’s spinning No. 99 Chevrolet on the 50th of 95 scheduled laps, and his No. 87 Trackhouse Chevrolet veered into a tire barrier in Turn 19.
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Both cars were sidelined, with Suárez scored 36th — one spot ahead of Zilisch, who wound up with a last-place result. Both drivers were evaluated and released after mandatory trips to the infield care center.
“Yeah, all I saw was a cloud of smoke, and by the time I saw him, it was way too late to do anything,” Zilisch said. “I saw him spinning off to the left, and I thought he was going to keep going in that direction or stay there. And I guess he flipped back right and started coming towards me. So, yeah, really unfortunate way to end, you know, my Cup Series debut. We were one of the top five fastest cars in the second stage there, I went from outside the top 30 to 14th, and felt really good about our car. We made a lot of gains from practice and qualifying and just unfortunate way to end it.”
Suárez has failed to finish in two consecutive Cup Series races. He ended up 33rd after a crash the previous weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and he said a misstep in one of the 2.3-mile track’s final turns caused the melee.
“I just hit the curb, hit the ground and then it spun me out,” Suárez said. “When you have low air pressure, that’s very easy to do because the car is lower to the ground. I wish I could say it was a big mistake, but it wasn’t. It was just maybe a tire width too far to the left, and I hit the curb and I spun out.”
Zilisch was the victor in Saturday’s Xfinity Series race at COTA, notching his second win in that tour. His much-anticipated Cup Series debut was announced back in January, the next step of his rapid progression that includes a full Xfinity campaign this year with JR Motorsports.
Zilisch said the biggest thing he learned was getting a feel for competing against more experienced competition.
“Just how to race against veterans,” Zilisch said. “You know, these guys all are very calculated and smart with the things they’re doing. And I had a lot of fun getting to kind of experience that and learn from a lot of those guys. So definitely a lot to take away from it. But frustrated that it ended this early. I felt really good. I was one of the fastest cars. I felt like I never saw a person that I didn’t think I was better than. So it was really frustrating to end that, and I was still learning, even throughout the race, and really wish I could have gotten to the end of the race to see what we had for those guys.”