“Going back to The Chase, it was unique to NASCAR. It’s something we believe the fans will embrace,” NASCAR President Steve O’Donnell said while announcing the sport’s return to the Chase format for the 2026 season for all three series. On the surface, the format is designed to reward consistency, create urgency, and keep fans locked in until the final lap of the season. But, for rising star Connor Zilisch, the format change, as good as it may turn out, arrives fresh on the heels of a brutal 2025 playoff heartbreak, prompting a blunt, emotional verdict.

A dominant year that still ended in disbelief

“I guess there’s a few that might not like it, but majority, I think fans like it. I think everybody’s happy, and that’s what we need in our sport.” Zilisch made his feelings clear about NASCAR adopting the Chase format.

While Zilisch says it calmly now, the words carry the weight of a season that slipped away despite historic brilliance. The 19-year-old phenom put together one of the most dominant rookie campaigns NASCAR has ever seen in 2025, driving the No. 88 Chevrolet for JR Motorsports.

Ten wins. Eighteen consecutive top-five finishes. Rookie of the Year honors locked up long before the finale. By every traditional measure, Connor Zilisch was, undoubtedly, the class of the field. And yet, none of it mattered when it counted most. The playoff “winner-take-all” format turned Phoenix Raceway into a cruel equalizer.

With 25 laps remaining in the finale, Jesse Love caught and passed Zilisch for the lead on Lap 176, effectively swinging the championship in one decisive moment. As if that wasn’t enough, Aric Almirola also slipped by late, pushing Zilisch back to third and officially shutting the door on a title that had felt inevitable for months.

The sting was impossible to ignore. Under NASCAR’s new cumulative points system set to debut in 2026, Zilisch wouldn’t have just won the championship; he would have cruised to it by a wide margin. Instead, his record-setting season became a case study in how unforgiving the playoff structure can be.

Still, Connor Zilisch isn’t dwelling on what might have been. Looking ahead, his mindset remains unchanged. “Our goal, no matter what the playoff format is, is to go out and win each weekend. I think that goal remains the same. It’s going to be exciting to see how it all plays out.”

For Zilisch, the heartbreak of 2025 may have shaped him. But it clearly hasn’t slowed him down.

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A bigger stage for Connor Zilisch in 2026

If 2025 was about learning how brutal NASCAR’s margins can be, 2026 is shaping up to be Connor Zilisch’s full-scale arrival. The heartbreak that followed his title loss hasn’t slowed his momentum. Instead, it’s sharpened it. Zilisch enters the new season with one of the most ambitious schedules of any young driver in the sport, balancing stock car racing’s biggest stage with elite endurance competition.

His year will begin at a place that has already shaped his growing résumé. Zilisch is set to compete in IMSA’s Rolex 24 at Daytona with Action Express Racing, marking his third consecutive start in the iconic endurance race. That alone is rare for a driver still early in his professional career. Even more remarkable is what he’s already accomplished there. In 2024, Zilisch won the LMP2 class with Era Motorsport alongside Christian Rasmussen, Ryan Dalziel, and Dwight Merriman, becoming one of the youngest Rolex 24 class winners in history.

From Daytona’s infield, Zilisch will head straight into NASCAR’s spotlight. In 2026, he makes the jump to the Cup Series full-time with Trackhouse Racing, replacing Daniel Suárez and joining Ross Chastain and Shane van Gisbergen in what instantly becomes one of the grid’s most intriguing lineups. It’s a bold move, but one Zilisch feels ready for.

“Competing in Cup racing has been my objective since joining Chevrolet and Trackhouse. While I didn’t expect it to happen this quickly, I believe I am prepared…I won’t make any predictions about next year’s success; all I can promise is to give my all, absorb as much knowledge as possible, and enjoy the journey!”

That journey already began earlier. Zilisch made three Cup starts for Trackhouse in 2025, though a planned Watkins Glen appearance was scrapped after he broke his collarbone celebrating an Xfinity Series win the day before. He wouldn’t return to Cup competition over the final ten races.

Now fully healthy and fully committed, 2026 feels less like a reset and more like the next inevitable step. For Connor Zilisch, the future isn’t about dwelling on what slipped away. It’s about everything that’s suddenly within reach.