Zilisch smashes track record twice to win COTA Truck pole on debut

The 17-year-old Trackhouse Racing development driver put on an impressive display in Friday’s Truck Series qualifying session at the Circuit of the Americas.

Making the first of what is expected to be three series starts this year with Spire Motorsports, Zilisch advanced to the final round of qualifying with a track record average lap speed of 92.941 mph.

As one of the last trucks to make a lap in the final round, he beat his own track record with an average speed of 93.012 mph to win the pole for Saturday’s race (He was 1.630 seconds faster than Ross Chastain’s record lap of a year ago).

Zilisch becomes just the sixth driver to start on the pole in his first series race.

“This is truly a testament to all the people around me,” said Zilisch, an accomplished karting and road racer who, most notably, was part of Era Motorsport’s LMP2 class win at the 2024 Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway, making him the second-youngest driver, ever, to win the iconic race.

“This Spire Motorsports team, (crew chief) Brian Pattie, everybody back at the shop, just a killer, killer job. This thing is basically driving itself.”

Zilisch is running a difficult double duty this weekend, making his Truck debut on Saturday afternoon and also competing in Saturday’s ARCA East season opener at Pensacola, Fla., an oval.

It’s on oval tracks that the multiple-time Trans-Am TA2 class race winner says he needs the most experience for a successful NASCAR career.

“I really enjoy new things for the challenges, As fun as this stuff is, I still need to get way better at ovals,” he said. “That’s probably my weak point right now.”

Corey Heim will line up alongside Zilish on the front row, followed by Taylor Gray, Nick Sanchez, Chastain, Jack Hawksworth, Tanner Gray, Layne Riggs, Christian Eckes and Ty Majeski.