CUP: Connor Zilisch’s tough rookie year continues with grinding wreck in Sunday’s 600
by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
SCREENSHOT: NASCAR on PRIME
Connor Zilisch picked up the 3rd last-place finish of his NASCAR Cup Series career in Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway when his #88 Red Bull Chevrolet was involved in a multi-car accident after 52 of 373 laps.
The finish, which came in Zilisch’s 16th series start, was his first of the season and first in a Cup Series race since August 10, 2025 at Watkins Glen, 25 races ago. In the Cup Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 31st for the #88, the 707th from a crash, and the 887th for Chevrolet. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 58th for the #88, the 1,459th from a crash, and the 2,043rd for Chevrolet.
The hype surrounding Connor Zilisch’s impending rookie season in this year’s Cup Series campaign could not have been more intense. He dominated last year’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Series campaign with 10 wins, and only lost the title when Jesse Love passed him during the last green-flag run in the “winner-take-all” championship race. Now teamed with Shane Van Gisbergen and Ross Chastain at Team Trackhouse, Zilisch looked to make a statement right from the start, just as Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart did in the 1990s. But crash damage left him 33rd in Daytona, and a 14th-place finish two rounds later in COTA remains his best finish of the young season. Things did seem to start turning around during last Sunday’s All-Star Race in Dover, where the phenom drove to an impressive 5th.
Also carrying him into Sunday was the promise of competing in another triple-header weekend with the Truck Series and O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. Maintaining ties with JR Motorsports on Saturdays, and now Spire Motorsports on Fridays, Zilisch entered the Charlotte weekend with two more O’Reilly wins on the season in Bristol and Watkins Glen, the latter a track where he remains 3-for-3 on victories. He also nearly won his lone Truck Series start of the year at The Glen, taking home 2nd to Kaden Honeycutt.
For Charlotte, Zilisch was one of 39 drivers entered for 40 starting spots, an entry list that was expected to include a 40th starter – Richard Childress Racing’s part-time #33 entry for driver Jesse Love with sponsorship from Titan and a paint scheme themed around Arlington National Cemetery. While Love wasn’t entered, the #33 would end up in the show, but under the most terrible possible circumstances. On Thursday afternoon came news of Kyle Busch’s tragic death from a worsening case of pneumonia that had become sepsis. Austin Hill, who had been tabbed to replace Busch when initial reports said he would miss this weekend’s race, would now run the #33 as Childress set aside the #8 for Busch’s 11-year-old son Brexton.
The same persistent rain that plagued the somber weekend’s events cancelled qualifying, where Zilisch was to be the 15th driver on track. Securing the 25th spot on the grid based on the rule book, he joined the rest of the field for practice, where he ranked a solid 11th at a speed of 29.324 seconds (184.150mph). This was part of another triple-header weekend for Zilisch. Driving for JRM in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race late on Saturday night, he led seven laps and finished 6th. Then on Sunday morning’s Truck Series race, where he swapped in for original entrant Carson Hocevar, Zilisch also led a lap, then piloted Spire Motorsports’ #77 Delaware Life Chevrolet to a 3rd place finish.
As part of NASCAR’s “600 Miles of Remembrance,” Zilisch’s car carried the name of Sergeant First Class Eugene Ashley, Jr. of the United States Army. Sergeant Ashley served in Vietnam in Company C, 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), 1st Special Forces. On February 6, 1968, he voluntarily led five assaults to free prisoners at the Lang Vei camp, which was fortified by both the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong. On his fifth counterattack, he was mortally wounded just thirty yards from safety. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, and in 2001 Eugene Ashley High School in Wilmington, North Carolina was named in his honor.
Securing the 39th and final starting spot was Corey Heim, who welcomed new sponsorship from Fleetio to back his #67 Toyota for 23XI Racing. Joining him in the back was Alex Bowman, who surrendered 29th on the grid due to unapproved adjustments, plus 36th-place Timmy Hill in the #66 Pinnacle Mortgage Corporation Ford. When the green flag dropped, Heim was now 37th, 2.774 seconds back of the lead, moving him ahead of 38th-place Hill (2.894) and 38th and last-place Bowman (3.027). By the time the field entered the backstretch on Lap 1, about four cars had dropped behind the field by open track. This included Hill, who took over last place on Lap 2, 4.258 seconds back of the lead with Bowman in 38th.
By Lap 3, when Hill was 5.739 seconds back of the lead, he was now tracking down 38th-place Katherine Legge, just two-tenths of a second ahead of him. Legge was completing her first bid at the Indy 500 / Coca-Cola 600 “double,” which began with a last-place finish in the 500 after she swerved to avoid colliding with a wrecking Ryan Hunter-Reay. Anthony Alfredo had been on standby as both Legge and team owner B.J. McLeod attended “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing,” but the early exit allowed both to return to Charlotte in time for Legge to start the #78 e.l.f. Cosmetics Chevrolet.
Over the next several laps, Hill’s gap to Legge fluctuated between just a few tenths to nearly a full second. He made a gain on Lap 6, drawing within a half-second, but by then both had fallen well behind 37th-place Cody Ware in the #51 Evel Knievel Museum / World Supercross Chevrolet. During the silent Lap 8 in honor of Busch, Hill dropped from 12.924 to 14.295 seconds back of the lead, and by Lap 10, the pair were nearly two seconds behind 37th-place Ware. Hill then started to close on Legge again, the two separated by less than three-tenths of a second on Lap 13. The next time by, Hill made it to Legge’s outside off Turn 4, dropping her to last place. While each remained within sight of each other, Legge was now in position to be the first driver to sweep last-place finishes in both the Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600 on the same day.
On Lap 24, race leader Tyler Reddick passed Legge in the high lane entering Turn 3, putting her the first car one lap down. Hill also lost a lap in 38th by Lap 26. On Lap 35, both caught a break when the first caution fell for Josh Berry scraping the wall then spinning his #21 eero Ford. Berry only fell to 36th, but Hill got his lap back, putting Legge in position to earn the “Lucky Dog” on the next caution.
The race restarted on Lap 40 with Legge still in last and Hill now within 3.337 seconds of the lead. Again, Legge remained in touch with Hill, but her onboard audio indicated she was bottoming out hard in Turns 1 and 2. “We’re going to raise the whole car up,” her crew told her. On Lap 48, Daniel Suarez made an early pit stop in his #7 Freeway Insurance Chevrolet, dropping him a lap down into the 38th spot, separating Legge from Hill. They remained in this order when trouble broke out in Turn 1.
On Lap 53, Austin Cindric was running 13th in his #2 Menards / Duracell Ford, which was in a tight battle ahead of Christopher Bell’s #20 Interstate Batteries Toyota. Midway through the corner, Cindric broke loose and spun up the track, nearly collecting William Byron’s #24 Raptor Chevrolet. Cindric then rolled down the banking onto the apron, where traffic now scattered to the apron. Among those drivers was 22nd-place running Zilisch, whose spotter told him to pull as low as he could. Zilisch turned hard to the left, making it off the banking to the apron, but was traveling too fast, causing the left-rear of his car to step out. The moment Zilisch broke loose, his right-rear slammed the nose of Cindric’s car, causing heavy damage to each. Zilisch limped back to pit road, though an entire shock fell from under his battered right-rear. “We’re done,” he said. He made it to pit road, pulled into the garage on the Turn 4 side, and by Lap 57 stopped in Garage Stall 7. Meanwhile, Cindric climbed from his car, which was then towed into another stall.
On Lap 59, just as Cindric’s crew removed his car’s air cleaner and destroyed hood, his onboard camera shut off. Then on Lap 64, Zilisch was declared out, followed by Cindric on Lap 74. Once again, there was a scoring issue between both online timing and scoring and the broadcast. NASCAR.com showed Cindric in 38th and Zilisch in 39th, but Cindric one lap behind Zilisch. The site’s “raw feed” showed both completed the same number of laps with Zilisch in 39th. Prime’s TV broadcast showed Cindric in last. Zilisch didn’t cross the starting line before he entered the garage between Pit Stalls 35 and 36 (the stripe is between Stalls 19 and 20), so he was correctly not credited with a different lap count versus Cindric.
Finishing 37th was Chase Elliott, whose #9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet lost control off Turn 2 and slammed nose-first into the backstretch wall on Lap 90. Timmy Hill ended up 36th after a fire caused either by the rocker panel or door foam ignited under the caution ending Stage 3, forcing him to dive onto pit road and climb from the car. Hill escaped serious injury, even as the flames started to invade the cockpit as he slowed into his stall. Completing the Bottom Five was Ross Chastain, whose #1 Jockey x Folds of Honor Chevrolet spun off the nose of Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.’s #47 Three Finger Jack Chevrolet on Lap 319. Chastain hit the wall at a point further down the backstretch near where Corey Day wrecked in that day’s Truck Series race, resulting in even more damage.
Zane Smith and Shane Van Gisbergen earn electrifying performances
Two drivers turned in standout performances. While Toyotas dominated the night, lapping several drivers due to pace or various miscues, both Zane Smith in the #38 Aaron’s Rent To Own Ford and Shane Van Gisbergen in the #97 SuperFile Chevrolet were in and around the Top 10 for most of the night. Each led laps with Smith leading once for 31 laps (Laps 61-91) and Van Gisbergen leading once for another 11 (Laps 327-337). Van Gisbergen also earned stage points during all three segments, taking 10th in Stage 1, 9th in Stage 2, and 7th in Stage 3.
Dale Jarrett’s first-lap crash in the 2006 Coca-Cola 600. (SCREENSHOT: FOX)
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked the first last-place finish for the #88 in a Cup points race at Charlotte since May 28, 2006, when Dale Jarrett’s #88 UPS Ford crashed on the opening lap of the Coca-Cola 600. That happened to mark Jarrett’s first last-place finish in a Cup race since 1991, and was his only last-place run driving for Robert Yates Racing.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
39) #88-Connor Zilisch / 52 laps / crash
38) #2-Austin Cindric / 52 laps / crash
37) #9-Chase Elliott / 89 laps / crash
36) #66-Timmy Hill / 291 laps / fire
35) #1-Ross Chastain / 317 laps / crash
2026 LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Joe Gibbs Racing (3)
2nd) Hendrick Motorsports, Trackhouse Racing (2)
3rd) Garage 66, Kaulig Racing, Live Fast Motorsports, Rick Ware Racing, Wood Brothers Racing (1)
2026 LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (7)
2nd) Toyota (3)
3rd) Ford (2)
2026 LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
