Connor Zilisch is heading to the NASCAR Cup Series, and the buzz is real. Fans are excited, teams are watching, and the pressure is already building. He’s young, talented, and backed by Trackhouse, but stepping into Cup is a whole different game. And when Denny Hamlin weighed in, his words added a dose of reality that’s hard to ignore.

Before his Cup Series debut, Connor Zilisch has already turned heads with seven Xfinity wins in 2025, highlighted by dominant runs at Watkins Glen and Sonoma. He’s logged over 400 laps led and posted 12 straight top-five finishes, one of which was credited to him after handing the car mid-race to Parker Kligerman due to injury at Daytona. His rise has been fast, fearless, and full of promise.

For a teenager heralded as one of the sport’s most promising prospects, Hamlin’s comment underscored the steep challenge ahead. Zilisch may be a generational talent, but the Cup transition has humbled even proven winners before him.

Denny Hamlin’s honest perspective

Recently, Denny Hamlin spoke candidly about Connor Zilisch’s upcoming Cup debut with Trackhouse Racing. While many in the garage have praised Zilisch’s rapid ascent, Hamlin struck a balance between admiration and realism. His blunt reminder, “It’s not gonna be an easy road” served as both a warning and encouragement.

Hamlin emphasized that Cup competition is less forgiving than any lower series. Even past Xfinity standouts like Chase Briscoe, Cole Custer, and Austin Cindric, who routinely dominated before promotion, struggled initially at the Cup level. That trend, Hamlin explained, is not about a lack of talent but the sheer depth of the field: “They crossed that fence onto Sunday… and it was like, whoa. These guys are really good. And they are good.”

The timing of Zilisch’s move is also significant. In NASCAR’s Next Gen era, the cars are markedly different from their Xfinity counterparts, meaning the traditional “seasoning” path offers less preparation than it once did. In fact, Hamlin suggested that extra time in Xfinity could actually mislead drivers, given the technical disconnect.

“He’s young enough… He’s gonna be able to absorb all that… and… again this is not gonna be… it’s not gonna be an easy road… Um… I do think the step up in competition is going to be big.” Denny explained on his podcast.

Another layer to Hamlin’s comments was the distinction between road courses and ovals. Zilisch, like Shane van Gisbergen, arrives with strong road-racing credentials, and Hamlin acknowledged that early flashes of success could come there.

As Denny explained, “I think he can run… his Trackhouse cars as equal or maybe even a little better than SVG on the ovals… I don’t know it’ll be close… SVG’s making pretty good strides…  so I don’t know how Zilisch is gonna do on an oval in Cup”. Even a world-class driver such as SVG is still adjusting on that front, making Hamlin cautious about predicting immediate oval success for Zilisch.

Still, Hamlin stopped short of pessimism. He referred to Zilisch as a “generational, franchise-type driver,” insisting that his long-term ceiling is enormous. The key, Hamlin stressed, is patience: not to expect instant brilliance, but to allow the teenager’s talent to mature against the best in the world.

Beyond the harsh realities of competing at NASCAR’s highest level, Connor Zilisch’s journey to the Cup Series is unfolding amid complex team dynamics and personal challenges highlighted in recent weeks. While Denny Hamlin offers a sobering perspective on the difficulty of the transition, the broader context at Trackhouse Racing and JR Motorsports underscores the mental and physical demands Zilisch faces.

Intense accountability and internal team pressure at Denny Hamlin’s team

Denny Hamlin’s recent blunt criticism of his own driver, Bubba Wallace, following a massive multi-car wreck at Daytona sheds light on the fierce accountability within 23XI Racing and NASCAR as a whole. Hamlin traced the wreck, which involved about a dozen cars, including high-profile names like Joey Logano and Kyle Busch, back to a risky move by Wallace.

On his Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin explained: “It looked like to me that Bubba just squeezed those two guys below him down. You could just see that they’re there, two cars on the inside. ” Despite speculation that Kyle Larson’s presence might have influenced the crash, Hamlin was firm in absolving Larson of direct blame, stating that Wallace’s move was the primary cause a “not-clear moment” born out of split-second decision-making.

Hamlin’s public critique of Wallace, his own driver and teammate, exposed tensions within 23XI Racing and revealed the high-pressure environment in which drivers operate. The incident starkly contrasts with the usual deflection of blame to outside rivals and emphasizes the strict internal expectations held by team leadership.

Wallace accepted responsibility for the wreck: “I’ll take the blame for it. Unfortunately. Everything was going too good, too early to be true. Something was bound to happen,” but the moment serves as a reminder of how close margins are in NASCAR, where an aggressive move can result in cascading consequences for many competitors.