Connor Zilisch persevered through a difficult rookie campaign in the NASCAR Cup Series division by notching his first-ever top-10 result in the series with a seventh-place result in the 2026 Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway on Sunday, June 28.
The 19-year-old Zilisch from Charlotte, North Carolina, took the green flag from 17th place and spent the early portions of the event racing within the top-20 mark before he pitted prior to the conclusion of the first stage period and settled in 21st place on Lap 25. By being among several competitors who pitted prior to the stage’s conclusion and with the remainder of the field pitting during the first stage’s conclusion, Zilisch cycled his way into the top-10 mark when the second stage period commenced on Lap 29.
Restarting in eighth place, Zilisch worked his way up as high as third place in the running order before he elected to strategically pit his No. 88 WeatherTech Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry prior to the second stage’s conclusion. Amid the pit stops, Zilisch managed to remain within the top-10 mark when he cycled back on the track and collected three critical stage points by settling in eighth place when the second stage concluded on Lap 55.
When the third and final stage period commenced with 51 laps remaining, Zilisch restarted on the front row alongside his teammate Shane van Gisbergen. At the stage’s launch, Zilisch fended off Chase Briscoe to maintain the runner-up spot as both competitors spent the next lap reeling in van Gisbergen for the lead. Their charge for the lead stalled during the next lap when a caution for a three-car incident in Turn 2 occurred.
During the next restart with 47 laps remaining, Zilisch did not gain a strong launch alongside van Gisbergen on the front row as he both lost ground on the latter for the lead and the runner-up spot from Briscoe through the first two turns. Zilisch retained third place over the next 20 laps before he made his final pit stop under green flag with 28 laps remaining. Despite briefly stalling his entry while trying to exit his pit stall, Zilisch remained within striking distance of Briscoe and maintained race pace to cycle his way back into the top-three mark.
For the event’s remainder, Zilisch not only lost ground of the top-two competitors (van Gisbergen and Briscoe), but the race pace started to drop as he was overtaken by Kyle Larson, Ty Gibbs and Christopher Bell as the laps dwindled. He then lost sixth place to Ryan Blaney with three laps remaining before he took the checkered flag in seventh place while finishing two seconds ahead of eighth-place Michael McDowell, but more than 19 seconds behind teammate and race winner Shane van Gisbergen.
Despite losing grasp of a top-five result, Zilisch, whose previous best result was 11th at EchoPark Speedway in June 2025, notched his first-ever top-10 result in his 21st career start in the NASCAR Cup Series division. The Charlotte native also bested his previous best result of the 2026 season of 14th place, the latter of which occurred at Circuit of the Americas in early March.
The seventh-place result generated a bittersweet feeling for Zilisch as he was in contention for a top-five spot and potentially a victory in the closing laps. Nevertheless, he was also content with the result in what has been a difficult campaign as a first-time competitor in NASCAR’s premier series.
“Seventh, I felt like, is a disappointment, but in the past few months we’ve had, I’ll take it,” Zilisch said. “It’s something to build off of. I felt like we could’ve been a lot better. That last run, we really tanked hard. I didn’t have any speed at all. I’ll have to go back and see what happened, but still really proud of the effort from the No. 88 team and our WeatherTech Chevrolet.”
Prior to Sonoma, Zilisch’s average-finishing result through 17 Cup events in 2026 was 28.2, all of which were marred by 13 results outside of the top-20 marks and six DNFs, including four over the previous five events. After Sonoma, he boosted it to 27.1, but he remains in 34th place in the 2026 driver’s standings. In addition, he trails the top-16 cutline to make the Chase by 203 points with eight regular-season events remaining until the Chase commences in early September.
As Zilisch looks ahead to the remaining events of the 2026 Cup Series season, he highlights Sonoma as a stepping stone to regaining his competitive form.
“It’s just a building block to get things moving back in the right direction,” Zilisch added. “It’s been an incredibly tough season, so days like this are important.”
The 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season for Connor Zilisch and his No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet team continues with the series’ return to Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois, for the eero 400. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, July 5, and air at 6 p.m. ET on TNT Sports, MRN Radio, SiriusXM, and HBO MAX.
