Connor Zilisch earned the first top-ten finish of his Cup career in Sonoma, where he finished 7th. Zilisch has always been touted as the next big driver in NASCAR, and that has come with its backlash. 

Joey Logano, who subbed in for Kevin Harvick during the episode of Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour podcast, felt like fans need to go easy on Zilisch because the transition is immensely difficult. 

“Connor will do it. Connor’s an amazing talent. He’s great. But a diamond in the rough at the moment. He just needs to be around long enough, and I think that’s the big thing for young talent coming in these days is they have to give them a chance,” Logano said on the podcast.

Currently in his rookie season, Zilisch has shown that he is fast and he can run up top, but he hasn’t been able to string a race together to get the maximum result. In San Diego, he crashed out from the top three to DNF after contact with Austin Hill. 

“I almost lost my chance; I mean, I technically did until Team Penske gave me a second chance, but I was this close to not making it. Forget 3 championships, not making it, not driving race cars. And we need to give these younger guys a chance to keep up and catch up,” Logano added on Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour podcast.

Logano started as a young, prodigious talent, but when he drove for Joe Gibbs Racing, there was heavy criticism. Thinking his career was over before it even started, Logano was picked up by Penske in 2013. 

Logano reflected on Zilisch's journey being similar to his own and revealed that the transition is extremely difficult to navigate immediately. 

NAPA to Cup biggest jump in motorsport -Logano

Logano outlines how both he and Connor Zilisch had a similar career graph coming through the Auto Parts series, where both drivers were touted to be the next big thing in NASCAR. 

Logano said that both he and Zilisch have faced similar criticism in their early Cup days because the transition isn’t easy.

“The jump from the O’Reilly series to the Cup series is the largest jump in motorsports, period. Hands down, there’s not a larger jump from talent level. Nothing against what’s going on in the O’Reilly series, but everybody in the Cup series can go to the O’Reilly series and win today. Every single one of them,” the 22 Penske Ford driver said on the same podcast.

Logano added, “They’re all really freaking good. I learned that. I remember some of my first races, and I thought those guys that run in the back every week in the Cup series- I’m like, I can beat that. And then I’m just watching them just laying two black marks off the corner. Just going burnouts off the corner. I’m like, holy cow, these guys are really good, and I couldn’t keep up.”

Logano believes it is exactly this transition phase that Zilisch is currently stuck in, and it took him about two years to get to the levels required for the Cup series, and people should extend that same time to Zilisch as well.

Do you think Zilisch will come good with time? Let us know in the comments.

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Written by

Debrup Chaudhuri

Edited by

Shubhi Rathore