CONCORD, N.C. — Connor Zilisch and Shane van Gisbergen know how to thrill in battles for the win in a NASCAR road race.
But the Trackhouse Racing teammates haven’t fought each other for victory in the Cup Series yet. There’s a good chance that changes Sunday at Watkins Glen International (3 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) with both seeking their first victories of 2026.
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SVG’s streak of five consecutive wins on a road or street course came to an end at Circuit of The Americas back in March when he finished second to 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick, but Zilisch remains confident in Trackhouse’s ability to contend this weekend, where teammates van Gisbergen won by over 11 seconds in 2025 and Ross Chastain won the pole in 2024.
“Based off the speed we had at COTA, I feel like our road-course program is really solid,” Zilisch said in a Tuesday teleconference. “I think obviously, with the success Shane has had, he’s done a lot to build our road-course program over the last few years with just his knowledge and and what he brings to the table. So I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t be competitive going to Watkins Glen this weekend. Obviously, he won there last year, and has had a lot of success in the past. Ross has had success there, too. been close to winning races there multiple times and sat on the pole a few years ago. So I’m looking forward to getting there and hopefully continuing to build on the momentum we have on road courses in the past 12 months.”
SVG is unquestionably the series’ most dominant road-course racer since his debut at the Chicago Street Course in 2023, crushing the competition last season with five wins on road or street courses. In four of those races that ended under green-flag conditions, he averaged a margin of victory of 10.992 seconds. But he doesn’t see himself or Zilisch as the favorites this weekend.
“No, definitely not,” van Gisbergen said Tuesday at the NASCAR Production Facility. “The 45 car (Reddick) is. He was amazing at COTA and he’s been amazing all year. So yeah, he’s the one I’m looking at. But as I said earlier, there’s six or eight guys I could pick out of the entry list that are going to be up at the front. So yeah, you’re racing everyone, I guess, but first person you compare to is your your teammate, and if you’re racing him for the win, that’s a good thing. That means our cars are doing all right.”
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For all of SVG’s road-course glory, Trackhouse has lost some of its steam elsewhere on the Cup Series calendar. Some combination of bad luck and a lack of speed has resulted in a downturn in points, with Chastain 18th in the standings, SVG 19th and 19-year-old rookie Zilisch 33rd, all outside The Chase. Their hope is that road racing can turn their fates back toward the good, particularly with the resumes van Gisbergen and Zilisch bring to the table.
“You definitely feel a buzz in the shop. Like it’s no secret it’s been pretty difficult, I think, to start the year,” van Gisbergen said. “We haven’t been where we expected or hoped to be, obviously. But you’re never just going to turn up and have magically fast cars. The fast cars are still going to be good. We still lack in some areas, and drivers still need to be better too. So yeah, I think collectively, we need to manage our expectations a bit. But yeah, you see, especially at COTA, we saw a big improvement from other teams, how much better they are this year. So yeah, not expecting to have it as nice as we did last year, but certainly hope and we’re preparing like we can fight for it.”
Zilisch entered the series as one of the most highly touted prospects the Cup Series has seen in ages, especially after scoring an incredible 10 wins in O’Reilly Auto Parts Series competition as a rookie in 2025 and nearly scoring the championship. But as driver of the No. 88 Chevrolet in Cup this season, Zilisch hasn’t led a lap, scoring a season-best 14th-place finish at COTA in March.
“We definitely need a good weekend,” Zilisch said. “I’m yet to get a top 10 in the Cup Series, and obviously that’s something that we need to get done sooner than later. The best opportunity is the weekend coming up and each and every race ahead of us. So yeah, we reset every weekend. We don’t let the bad results get to us. We keep our heads down and continue to work and make changes and try and do things differently to make a difference, because at the end of the day, if nothing changes, nothing changes, and we know that.”
Connor Zilisch and Shane van Gisbergen race in the NASCAR Cup Series.
Seventeen years Zilisch’s elder, van Gisbergen went through the rookie Cup experience last season as well — one that started similarly to Zilisch’s. SVG averaged a 27.5 finish through the first 11 races of 2025 with three DNFs. Zilisch is averaging a 26.0 finish through 11 races with two DNFs.
This year, the 36-year-old van Gisbergen began far better and sat as high as fifth in the Cup Series standings through four races. But that hot start cooled quickly with three finishes of 34th or worse in a five-race span. The driver of the No. 97 Chevrolet has started to turn things the right direction again with finishes of 20th (Talladega Superspeedway) and 17th (Texas Motor Speedway) in the last two weeks, but he’s just as eager as anyone to run inside the top 15 again.
“It’s hard. Like I had an amazing start to the year. I felt like we were really going well,” van Gisbergen said. “And then the last four weeks, five weeks, we had a bit of a dip, so we’ve just got to get it right and eliminate mistakes, because I still feel like there’s potential for us to get it right when we execute, and I’m still improving and learning a lot. I felt like I went backwards a bit going to Texas. It’s a track I haven’t been to much. And yeah, I went there and (it’s like), ‘Oh [expletive], I’ve still got so much to learn here,’ whereas other tracks, I’m really getting to know them and know what I want the car to feel like and stuff. So yeah, it’s just keeping on building experience and the guys and myself knowing what we want from the car.”
Road courses clearly offer van Gisbergen his best chances at victory — and that’s likely the case for his rookie teammate, Zilisch, as well. But in his first NASCAR campaign, in which wins don’t guarantee a spot in the postseason, SVG believes consistent top 20s on ovals could help him make The Chase this fall.
“I think so — yeah, maybe,” he said. “Obviously doing that, we’ve got to score big on the road courses. Getting a win is huge, and that’ll really help us. But yeah, I would rather be fast every week and not have to rely on the road courses. And it was kind of trending that way at the start of the year, so we just kind of need to get back to that.”
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Watkins Glen can be that turning point for Trackhouse. Zilisch won each of his two O’Reilly Auto Parts Series at the 2.45-mile road course, including his series debut in 2024. And nearing the midpoint of the 26-race regular season, there’s no time to waste to climb out of a points hole.
“No doubt, it’s one we look forward to as a team,” Zilisch said. “This is a great opportunity for all of us to get back on the right track, get some good points. And Ross and Shane are obviously really close to the cutline, so them having a good weekend would be really important for just the energy inside the building. We’ve been really hungry and there’s no sense of giving up. We know that this is not where we want to be as a team.
“It’s certainly shocked us at the speed we’ve had, and we know that we need to get to work and make things better. And I don’t think I’ve ever seen the people inside the building work this hard to try and get us back to where we need to be. So it’s really cool what we’re working on and what we’re building and I think it presents a unique opportunity for us to grow and get better as a team.”
