"He's done an exceptional job": Austin Cindric validates Trackhouse Racing star for ‘quickly’ climbing the ranks in NASCAR 

Austin Cindric has expressed his thoughts on Trackhouse's development driver Connor Zilisch's racing prowess as fans inch closer to the road course event at Circuit of the Americas (COTA). The Team Penske driver acknowledged Zilisch's quick climb up through the NASCAR ladder as the 18-year-old prepares for his Cup Series debut this weekend (March 2).

In a recent media interaction, the two-time Cup race winner Cindric was asked for his thoughts on Zilisch, who has a strong road course racing resume before entering the NASCAR premier division race at Austin, Texas. To this, the No. 2 Ford driver said:

"I think you look at the field and you could probably pick out 12 guys that you could think could contend for the race win and I think Connor is certainly talented enough to have pace," said Cindric.

With his history of running the IMSA series, Cindric also highlighted the No. 87 Chevy driver Zilisch's impressive SportsCar stints such as winning the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring last year. Cindric added:

"I think that comes with a lot with having your first cup series race but I think he's done stuff in IMSA that's been super impressive to me. The 12 hours win last year at Sebring, I think for me the finishing stint and all that, I think he's done an exceptional job, especially at his age. He's coming up through the ranks quite quickly so it'll be interesting to see how he gets on but there's no doubt that I'm sure he'll have some pace."

Meanwhile, Cindric, the 2022 Daytona 500 champion, has certainly shown speed in the first two races of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season. He led 59 laps at the Great American race followed by 47 laps at the next superspeedway track in Atlanta.

However, the Team Penske star still admitted to having "disappointing" results so far.

---

"It's a shame": Austin Cindric reflects on the first two races of the NASCAR season

NASCAR: Ambetter Health 400 - Source: Imagn

In his two starts for the Roger Penske-owned organization, Austin Cindric has finished P8 in the season-inaugural race at Daytona and had a P28 at Atlanta last weekend.

Despite being in the second spot in most laps led behind teammate Joey Logano, Cindric didn't shy away from addressing the recent disappointment. He said (via Jayski):

"As a team, as Fords, we had the best cars here this weekend. We put ourselves into position to win the race and got used up and into the fence and didn’t win the race. It’s a shame. Two weeks in a row I feel like we have had the car to beat and haven’t done it. One way or another, it is disappointing."

With two races for the regular season done and dusted, the NASCAR Cup Series will return to action for the Circuit of the Americas race on March 2.