"We had a shot at top 5": Connor Zilisch left 'frustrated' following unfortunate end to NASCAR Cup debut at COTA

Connor Zilisch recently shared his thoughts on his NASCAR Cup Series debut. The Trackhouse Racing development driver, who races full-time for JR Motorsports in the Xfinity Series, ran the #87 car at COTA on Sunday.

But while Zilisch had won the Xfinity race on Saturday, his Cup debut ended with a less-than-ideal result as he finished in 37th place.

Following the race, Zilisch looked back on his first Cup race during an episode of the Door Bumper Clear podcast. As the host, Freddie Kraft, asked his guest about the difficult preparation he had to go through for COTA, Zilisch said:

"Yeah, it's so tough to hop in a car that you've never driven before. When you're racing against guys that have 500 Cup starts under their belt and they've been running this car for four years and I'm coming in, no testing at all, just kind of cold turkey into practice," Connor Zilisch said. [4:00]

He remarked that going into practice, he wasn't very good as he got loose. But in Zilisch's eyes, that was something every driver went through as they all expected the track to have more grip than it did. He added it all came down to whoever would get closest to the ideal grip when it came to the race on Sunday.

However, Zilisch's race came to an unfortunate end when he made contact with Daniel Suarez. And despite starting from the 14th place, Zilisch ended up with a 37th place result as his car was sidelined with damage. Speaking about not being able to see the race through, he said:

"I wish we could have seen the race play out because I feel like we had a shot at a top five and a really good finish. So a little frustrated with that but getting to make my Cup debut, soak it all in enjoy, it was a really cool day."

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Connor Zilisch left Denny Hamlin impressed following COTA

NASCAR veteran Denny Hamlin spoke about Connor Zilisch on the latest episode of the Actions Detrimental podcast. The JGR driver claimed that Zilisch deserves credit for his upbringing and 'all the training' he's gone through to get to this level.

Hamlin said that Zilisch is someone who would become 'tough to deal with' on road courses, while also learning on ovals, like Shane van Gisbergen.

"He’s got some learning to do on the ovals and got some improving to do there. But, you know, I actually had in my notes last week for Atlanta — I forgot to mention how impressed I was with SVG in the draft. I thought he just did a phenomenal job. I mean, just with the little experience that he has doing that, he was holding a pretty damn steady line," Hamlin described.

With that said, it'll be interesting to see how Connor Zilisch fares in his next Cup races. It's worth mentioning that Trackhouse boss, Justin Marks, recently emphasized that they're trying to give 'as much opportunity as possible' to get the young driver more Cup experience.