NASCAR Chevy Trucks Rookie Pulls Off Top 5 At COTA 2024: Video

Two Toyotas battled it out for the Truck Series win at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) on March 23^rd, 2024, but that’s not to say the NASCAR Chevy teams weren’t a threat. In fact, a 17-year-old rookie earned a slot in the top five after a hard-fought race through the field.

Said rookie is Connor Zilisch, driver of the No. 7 Chevy Silverado RST. His race truck was fast enough to win the pole during qualifying, although he overshot a corner on the first lap and got shuffled back to 10^th. He reined the truck in and melded with traffic, but he had a problem. A tire had gone flat.

Zilisch was later spun and dropped outside the top 20. Then, he was penalized for shortcutting the road course. However, he took advantage of pit stops to fight back up to sixth by the end of Stage 2 before making contact with yet another race truck that resulted in a tire rub. His crew addressed the damage.

After a yellow flag was waved due to the rear end of Marco Andretti’s No. 4 Silverado coming detached – axle, wheels and all – Zilisch restarted eighth and earned four spots by the time the checkered flag waved.

“I’m proud of myself, but knowing how much speed we had, I’m still frustrated,” Zilisch said. “I wish I could have gotten a better finish. But at the end of the day, I finished fourth in my NASCAR debut. That’s nothing to hang your head about.”

Zilisch is a part-time entry and will race in the Truck Series again during the fall Talladega event.

# – Rookie
i – Points ineligible
* – Part-time driver

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