I'm against unwarranted media hype as much as anybody, especially when it comes to motorsports. There are too many legitimate storylines and achievements to talk about without completely overblowing everything certain drivers do for the purpose of promoting whatever popular narrative happens to be driving engagement on social media at any given time.
So naturally, I've been a bit curious as to what the media response would be if Connor Zilisch, hailed the best NASCAR prospect since Jeff Gordon, struggled out of the gate in his rookie Cup Series season with Trackhouse Racing.
It didn't take long to find out answer.
Zilisch, as an Xfinity Series (O'Reilly Auto Parts Series) rookie in 2025, became just the third driver to win 10 races in a season in the series' history, although the doubters will point out that he was only actually in the car for nine of those wins (still good for third all-time, for what it's worth).
There was indeed more hype surrounding him entering the Cup Series than there has been for anybody since the longtime driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, the eventual 93-time race winner, four-time champion, and NASCAR Hall of Famer made his series debut in 1992.
Even though, in his limited Cup Series experience a year ago, he did not score a top 10 finish, the hype train continued when the 19-year-old opened up the year as one of the championship favorites, and it accelerated amid additional speculation about him potentially having future in Formula 1, given his road course racing background and exceptional record in such races.
The first two races at Daytona International Speedway and EchoPark Speedway (Atlanta Motor Speedway) were not kind to the Charlotte, North Carolina native, and he left sitting 36th (last) in the point standings among full-time drivers.
Of course, NASCAR fans have a tendency to either conveniently dwell on or conveniently ignore superspeedway results, so it was hard to read into anything here either way.
The real test for Zilisch was the race at Circuit of the Americas (COTA), a race he entered as the most likely driver to end teammate Shane van Gisbergen's five-race road and street course winning streak.
Connor Zilisch made a statement, despite the box score
Zilisch did not perform well in qualifying and started 25th. After being spun out once by Daniel Suarez, he worked his way into the top five, and after being spun out again on a late restart, he still managed to climb all the way back from the 30s to 14th, which is where he had climbed to from last place a year ago before also being wrecked out by Suarez, ironically the driver whose seat he took in 2026.
NASCAR fans do have a habit of clinging to the party line when it comes to overblowing certain narratives. Kyle Larson is the most notable example. At no point did he ever say, "I'm better than Max Verstappen", yet NASCAR fans and media further twisted it into Larson saying, "I'm the best driver in the world", leading to a tiring, endless, and utterly pointless debate that nobody is ever going to win.
Naturally, that debate ramped up when Larson tried his hand at IndyCar, was inexplicably the outright betting favorite to win the Indy 500, despite having never competed in a race before, and then finished 18th after bottling an early restart and speeding in the pits.
He returned the following year and crashed three times across practice and the race (despite making fun of another driver for doing the same), and McLaren's post-race sendoff made it quite clear that they were ready to move on.
Yet it was less of an embarrassment for Larson, who deserves credit for being brave enough to make the attempt, and more of an embarrassment for the fans, many of whom had probably never watched an IndyCar race before, assumed it was a minor league series, and actually thought and insisted that he would show up and lap the field in an Indy Car with no previous experience, just because he grew up racing on dirt. It's sort of funny to think about, in hindsight.
With Zilisch, sure, it's important to be cautious, and there is an inherent pressure that comes with being compared to somebody like Gordon right away. We saw it in Formula 1 a year ago, when rookie Kimi Antonelli struggled right out of the gate, despite being labeled "the next Max Verstappen" (isn't that Larson's title? I digress...).
All things considered, let's not assume the hype train is already imploding when it comes to Zilisch.
It may sound like a cliche, but we are only three races into his rookie season.
Sunday's race at Phoenix Raceway is set to be Zilisch's first "normal" oval race since he finished 23rd in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway a year ago. Given the fact that six of his 11 career O'Reilly Series victories came on road courses, it's expected that he'll take time to adjust to the ovals.
And even Gordon didn't win until his 42nd career start. He had five DNFs in his first eight races.
I'm not sure Zilisch will have what it takes to make the playoffs as a rookie, with how deep the field is and the early hole he's in, tied for 32nd in points with Cody Ware. But as Beyond the Flag contributor Ryan McCafferty recently wrote, the Cup Series better get him while they can.
It has taken no time at all for him to emerge as a legitimate threat on the road courses in Cup, and after starting 0-for-15 in O'Reilly Series oval races, he won five of the next seven.
The hype surrounding Zilisch isn't going away, nor should it, and the idea that that, after just three races, the doubters were correct simply doesn't hold up. If anything, the real overreaction would be to suggest that things aren't working out.