If NASCAR fans have one flaw other than the fact that they are seemingly never satisfied, it's the fact that they have a propensity to latch onto and promote the popular, "cool" narratives and turn them into something far bigger than they need or deserve to be.
There's nothing wrong with hyping up certain drivers. We see it across all forms of motorsport, and we see it with athletes in other sports.
But whether it's Kyle Larson being A.J. Foyt or the "best in the world" simply because he made comments (that the media twisted) about Max Verstappen, or Carson Hocevar being Dale Earnhardt just because he puts on a firesuit and isn't afraid to run into people, NASCAR fans have no problem going way over the top in certain cases.
Perhaps the most interesting case is that of Connor Zilisch.
Zilisch is one of the most hyped NASCAR prospects in quite some time, and it's hype he earned. He won 10 races as a rookie in the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series in 2025 after winning on series debut in 2024, and it was enough to land him a Cup Series seat with Trackhouse Racing in 2026.
But when it comes to Zilisch, NASCAR fans have once again failed to tow the line between hype and overhype.
The 19-year-old Charlotte, North Carolina native hasn't necessarily been overhyped yet; we are, after all, just 10 races into his career as a full-time driver. But if his current trajectory continues, we could be looking at one of the sport's greatest what-ifs of all-time.
One thing it's worth pointing out is that there's a massive difference between being overhyped and overrated, and I think the best example of this concept is Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Dale Jr. was overhyped in that he never won a championship but still won 15 consecutive Most Popular Driver Awards simply because of the name Earnhardt. But if anything, he was actually underrated, rather than overrated.
Some fans treated him like a bust simply because he wasn't a seven-time champion like his father was. But he was no slouch himself, winning 26 Cup races, including two Daytona 500s, and placing as high as third in the championship. Say what you want about the last name, but there are many reasons other than that last name when it comes to why he's in the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
Zilisch is not overrated.
We all saw what he can do in the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series a year ago, and we've seen him beat some of NASCAR's best Cup drivers in that series this year as well. He has everything you want a young driver to have and more.
His resume before he reached the age of 18 was already longer than most drivers could ever dream of, highlighted by a Rolex 24 LMP2 class win in 2024 at the age of 17.
He's also one of the few NASCAR drivers who has been seriously linked not only to an Indy 500 ride at some point in the near future, but who has been mentioned in way-too-early Formula 1 discussions.
The talent is there. But the execution simply hasn't been.
Some of that isn't his fault. In fact, a lot of it isn't. Trackhouse Racing have taken a massive step back this season. Even as other Chevrolet teams have struggled to adjust to the new body, the struggles of the Justin Marks-owned team seemingly go beyond those.
Aside from the expected single-car backmarker teams of Haas Factory Team and Rick Ware Racing, Trackhouse Racing have given Richard Childress Racing a run for their money in what has been a dreadful year for both.
Former championship runner-up Ross Chastain doesn't have a single top 15 finish in a non-superspeedway race all year. Shane van Gisbergen had slightly more than a snowball's chance in Haiti to qualify for the playoffs after three of the five road/street course races where he won a year ago were wiped off the calendar, and although his early-season run inside the provisional playoff picture was a nice surprise, it has since expectedly come to an end.
Zilisch is lagging behind both of those drivers, which you could argue was expected out of a rookie.
But this rookie was supposed to take the entire racing world by storm.
This was the rookie who was legitimately, yet totally inexplicably, considered one of the championship favorites by the sportsbooks in the preseason.
This was the next Jeff Gordon. This was the best prospect ever.
Instead, the "next Jeff Gordon" has just two 25 finishes in his first 10 starts as a full-time driver, and he's 123 points below the provisional "Chase" playoff cut line. He's only scored 103 points, good for 33rd in the point standings, and he's only 23 points ahead of a driver who literally missed four and a half races with vertigo.
Admittedly, his season-best 14th place finish at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) should have been better, had he not had to rally from the back twice due to being spun out.
And while a top five finish in that race inevitably would have led to criticism that he could supposedly only run well on road courses, he proved in the O'Reilly Series that, while he started out as a road course specialist, he could eventually figure it out on the ovals.
He won his first two O'Reilly Series road course starts, but it took him until oval start number 16 to find victory lane. He then won five out of seven oval races from there.
One question we've always had is how the media, the same media that hyped him up to the point where fans were almost forced to start to question if the narrative was indeed overblown, would react if Zilisch failed to live up to such lofty expectations, a scenario that always felt, to some extent, inevitable.
There's been a lot of quiet so far, as you might expect. But perhaps there needs to be noise about Zilisch's limited upside with the current state of Trackhouse Racing.
Zilisch would obviously like to remain loyal to the team that signed him as a development driver in 2024, but if things aren't working out, something needs to change. And to avoid one of the greatest career wastes the sport has ever seen, it might need to happen soon.
Chevrolet's investment has played a huge role in Zilisch reaching this level, so it wouldn't be surprising to see him become the go-to for Hendrick Motorsports if they opt to move on from Alex Bowman with Hocevar off the table, or even an upstart Spire Motorsports team, which could have as many as two seats to fill alongside Hocevar.
Primary sponsor Red Bull also has notable ties to Ford through their Formula 1 deal, so if Trackhouse Racing end up switching manufacturers at some point, which is not out of the question amid the ongoing fallout from the infamous 2023 Darlington Raceway incident, Zilisch could have enough reason to stay on board. Ford's other teams, notably RFK Racing, could also benefit from lineup upgrades. You could even throw Team Penske into that discussion.
In the meantime, Zilisch simply needs to do something positive on the race track that reminds fans why he was surrounded by so much hype entering the 2026 season.
He needs to do something other than battle for position with the Cody Wares and Riley Herbsts and Cole Custers of the world on a weekly basis. It's reached a point where he's largely become invisible, even in relation to his struggling teammates.
Something needs to change, because for as much potential exists here, next to none of it has been on display in 2026. Let's just hope that by the time something changes, the damage done is not irreparable.
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