Trackhouse Racing’s young driver Connor Zilisch has taken the NASCAR world by storm. The 18-year-old driver is fresh from his first NASCAR Xfinity Series win at Watkins Glen and has now set his eyes on a first Truck Series victory at Bristol Motor Speedway. After clinching the pole for the Bush’s Beans 200, Zilisch went on to repeat the same, driving the #7 Spire Motorsports truck for the Truck Series event.

Talk about dominance; he was a full tenth of a second ahead of the runner-up. Corey Heim, who is touted to be the next big thing in NASCAR, had to settle for a front-row start alongside Zilisch. Meanwhile, Rajah Caruth and William Sawalich will line up behind the two race leaders for the UNOH 200 Presented by Ohio Logistics.

“It’s a lot of preparation. It takes an army to make this stuff happen, and everyone at Chevrolet, Josh Wise, my Spire Motorsports team, my Pinnacle Racing group team on the ARCA side. Driving fast cars makes myself look good, and I’m thankful to be in a position to drive all these cars and have all these great people support me. So yeah, I’m chasing three trophies tonight. Hopefully, we get all three of those trophies. It’s going to be a busy weekend, but I’m ready for it.” Connor Zilisch said this to FOX Sports.

Not only that, Zilisch will have a shot at winning the ARCA East Series title with an 11th-place finish or better for today’s double-duty run. NASCAR fans just couldn’t believe what they were witnessing from the talented driver. And soon they started to predict the outcome of his busy racing weekend.

Fans react to Connor Zilisch’s back-to-back pole win at Bristol

In the modern era, NASCAR has failed to produce the next wave of superstar drivers. While the Cup Series does have the likes of Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, and Christopher Bell. None of them have been able to solidify the tag as the top driver of their generation. However, the tremendous rise of young driver Connor Zilisch seems to have laid the foundation to claim that tag. And even fans rallied behind him after his qualifying performance. A fan wrote, “He is the future of NASCAR.”

The NASCAR Cup Series team is always on the lookout for an upcoming talent that they could add to their lineup. Although he has already signed a full-time run with JR Motorsports in the Xfinity Series, fans believed he was ready for a Cup Series driver, knowing that William Byron also started his career with JRM, and how his 1 win, 7 poles and 15 top-five finishes in 30 starts for JRM helped him achieve that top spot with NASCAR’s winningest team. “That kid is something else. Is he officially in the Hendrick pipeline?” 

Zilisch currently has the possibility of winning three trophies. The ARCA East Series title, the ARCA race win, followed by the Truck event. While the qualifying results don’t guarantee a winning run in the main event, this fan was feeling confident about Zilisch’s chances. “He’ll win the Arca race and Truck race. I’m calling it now 😂”

The driver of the #7 Truck had the best lap time of 15.325. Even the likes of Christian Eckes, Corey Heim, or Ty Majeski were able to come anywhere close to his run. Perhaps Zilisch was making amends to his DNF run at Richmond last time around. And he certainly got the fans hyped for his run at Bristol with a near-perfect qualifying lap. “Gives a whole new meaning to Red Bull gives you wings. Insane lap.”

Hendrick Motorsports fans just couldn’t help but urge the higher-ups at the team to lock this talented driver. It has to be noted that Zilisch is signed to Trackhouse Racing and will be competing in the Xfinity Series next year with JRM. With this trajectory, he is expected to land at the Cup level, but his team selection could be anyone’s guess right now. For this fan, it was HMS. “Write this man a blank check, @JeffGordonWeb.”

Given how quickly Connor Zilisch has progressed in just a handful of races, it’s hard to see him not have a breakthrough season next year with JRM.