(Video) Connor Zilisch’s Cup debut ended in a fiery wreck involving Daniel Suarez at COTA

Trackhouse Racing had a poor weekend at COTA with their star drivers crashing out in the final stage of the race.

(Video) Connor Zilisch’s Cup debut ended in a fiery wreck involving Daniel Suarez at COTA

Connor Zilisch and Daniel Suarez (Via @TrackhouseRacing/X)

The third race of the 2025 NASCAR Cup series season marked the debut of Trackhouse Racing development driver Connor Zilisch. The youngster, who is known for being a solid road course racer, came in with momentum on his side following the Xfinity Series win. But everything went south for him in the last stage of the race.

Connor Zilisch was racing P14 with just 45 laps in the race when his teammate Daniel Saurez, who was racing at P8 spun out, creating a smoke screen. The youngster tried to avoid the wreck moving to the outside lane but failed to do so as the No:99 Chevy collected him and send him to the track barriers.

The heavy contact caused significant damage to the left side of his car and the contact with the wall made the Chevy catch on fire. Fortunately, it didn’t result in any injury for the Xfinity Series rookie, as he was able to get out of the car quickly after the incidents while the safety crew put out the small fire. Despite the disappointment, Zilisch is happy about getting experience Cup racing and driving alongside racers he grew up watching on TV.

FS Video

That second stage, driving from outside the top-30 to 14th, was a lot of fun. I was passing a lot of guys that I used to watch on TV growing up. Hopefully I’ll get the chance to come back and do this again. I had an absolute blast driving through the field, and I wish it didn’t end early.

Connor Zilisch said in his post-race interview.

Daniel Suarez laments losing a top 5 finish

In his post-race interview, Suarez shared his feelings about the disappointing event as his car was good enough to secure a top-5 finish. He admitted that he didn’t know about the No:99 cars’ chance of winning and revealed that hitting the curb harder caused him to spin out.

Daniel Suarez
Daniel Suarez (Via @Daniel_SuarezG/X)

Very disappointing. This is not the way I want to talk to you. Our car was good. I thought we were going to have a top-five run. I don’t know if we were good enough for the win, but a top-five run for sure, top-seven maybe. And lower pressure, the car is lower, you know it hits everything harder. I just hit the curb, that big section right there, and it spin me out.

Daniel Saurez said.

The Trackhouse Racing driver has been having tough times since the start of the 2025 season. He has to work on avoiding poor mistakes during the races, starting from next weekends’ race at the Phoenix Raceway.