Who knew that Connor Zilisch’s Watkins Glen weekend would turn out to be a bittersweet one for the youngster? The 19-year-old NASCAR prodigy had big hopes for “The Glen.” After all, that’s where things kicked off for him in NASCAR. If you recall, he made his Xfinity debut there last year and won the race after starting on pole.
This left the entire NASCAR community shocked, and Zilisch even got a full season in the Xfinity Series this year thanks to that. As was expected, he exceeded everyone’s expectations. Ahead of the Watkins Glen weekend, he had already bagged five wins. With NASCAR headed to “The Glen,” Zilisch was prepping for his first triple duty.
He got a last-minute call to pilot the No. 45 Niece Motorsports Truck after the team parted ways with the truck’s original driver, Kayden Honeycutt. After a good start in the race, Zilisch had to be satisfied with a P14 finish. But next up was the Xfinity race, where he was coming as the defending winner. While the race went as expected for Zilisch, things did not end well for him. After that, the Cup Series race had only 39 cars, down from 40.
Recently, a NASCAR insider revealed the reason behind Justin Marks’ Trackhouse Racing team making such a decision.
Why Did Trackhouse Racing Not Put a Reserve Driver in Connor Zilisch’s Car?
Here’s what happened: Zilisch had a stellar day at the Xfinity Series race. First, he dominated qualifying, taking the pole by half a second over Shane van Gisbergen in P2. Then he even had a dominant run in the race. After an intense battle with SVG in the race, Zilisch ultimately took the checkered flag.
Naturally, the North Carolina native was overjoyed to get his sixth win of the season and continue to lead the points ranking over his teammate and defending champion, Justin Allgaier. But tragedy unfolded when Zilisch was celebrating his win. He climbed up the window for his No. 88 car to wave and cheer. But that’s when his foot got stuck in the window netting and he fell headfirst on the ground.
Thankfully, his CT scans came back clear, but Zilisch does have a broken collarbone. This put an end to his triple as he could not make it to the Cup Series event at Watkins Glen, where Zilisch was expected to start the race 25th.
Well, usually in such cases, the team puts a reserve driver in the car. But rather, Trackhouse Racing and Zilisch’s $10 billion sponsor, Red Bull, decided to withdraw from the race.
However, the beverage giant and Marks’ decision left fans puzzled. One fan asked NASCAR journalist Bob Pockrass for some clarification. He wrote, “Why wouldn’t that still race the car, don’t they have sponsors to please?”
To which Pockrass replied, “Red Bull is pretty tightly aligned to specific athletes (such as SVG, Zilisch) & race designed to give him experience, so if he can’t, then probably not worth it (might as well keep a fast race car fast rather than damaged). This was last scheduled Cup race of year for Zilisch.”
Red Bull is pretty tightly aligned to specific athletes (such as SVG, Zilisch) & race designed to give him experience so if he can’t, then probably not worth it (might as well keep a fast race car fast rather than damaged). This was last scheduled Cup race of year for Zilisch. https://t.co/Qc5l4UBlTy
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) August 10, 2025
This move was kind of expected. First, Red Bull is very picky with their athletes, so they wouldn’t want a driver who’s not on their roster to drive under their name. Second, the whole point for Trackhouse to bring a fourth car to race was thanks to how good Zilisch has been at Watkins Glen.
And with SVG already a frontrunner, Zilisch gave them another strong driver in the race. But a reserve driver would not have been able to fulfill that role. Let’s hope Zilisch makes a quick recovery and is back in the car when the Xfinity race green flags at Daytona.
