Connor Zilisch’s road to Hendrick begins with New Hampshire crash

It’s been a difficult rookie season in the NASCAR Cup Series for Connor Zilisch, but his struggles don’t change that he’s among the most talented prospects to reach stock car racing’s highest level. Hendrick Motorsports sees so much potential that they’ve already signed him to take over the #48 car from Alex Bowman starting in 2028.

Bowman is scheduled to retire from full-time NASCAR competition at the end of 2027. He has been a mainstay at Hendrick Motorsports since 2016, which included the unenviable tasks of replacing both Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jimmie Johnson following their retirements. Since then, he has enjoyed eight trips to Victory Lane and a best points finish of sixth in 2020.

However, injuries have plagued Bowman since 2022. He missed five races at the end of that season due to a concussion he sustained in a crash at Texas. A year later, he sat out three weeks after breaking his back in a sprint car crash. During March’s race at COTA, Bowman had to be replaced by Myatt Snider for the final stage when he started experiencing vertigo in the cockpit.

He missed the next four rounds as a result before returning at Bristol, only for his bad luck to continue when he got caught up in an accident. Bowman sits a paltry 30th in points, having struggled to find his footing; besides the time missed, some attribute this to the fourth Hendrick car typically underperforming compared to the other cars.

“I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what’s next, and this feels like the right decision at the right time,” Bowman said of his retirement. “The sport asks a lot of you, and I’ve learned it’s important to listen to your body and make the right choices for yourself.”

Setting his retirement for the end of next year gave Rick Hendrick time to figure out his replacement, but he didn’t need to look long or hard. Being one of the top teams in NASCAR gives HMS plenty of weight to attract big-name free agents in the market, while JR Motorsports and HMS‘ O’Reilly Auto Parts Series division offer an additional pipeline for younger talent.

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Outside of Justin Allgaier, however, all of the JRM drivers were considered too inexperienced for the ride. Although Allgaier has an O’Reilly title to his name and Cup experience, the 40-year-old is not a viable long-term option. Corey Day, Hendrick’s main development driver hand-picked by HMS star Kyle Larson, has two wins in his O’Reilly rookie campaign but needs more time to get the hang of pavement racing.

With no options in-house, Hendrick immediately looked towards the other Chevrolet teams. Zilisch, who drives for Trackhouse Racing, was the obvious pick. The 20-year-old dominated the then-Xfinity Series as a JRM driver in 2025 and the hope is that his 2027 campaign with Trackhouse will give him another season to adjust before stepping into the #48. Zilisch was officially signed to a multi-year deal on Monday.

“This is one of those moments you dream about as a kid,” Zilisch commented. “Hendrick Motorsports has always represented the standard in our sport, and being entrusted to help continue that legacy means everything to me.”

With his new contract and #48 cap tucked away for now, Zilisch put his #88 cap back on as he went to New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

As it turned out, signing with Hendrick might have only amplified its fourth car curse in tandem with his rookie struggles. Zilisch only made it 222 laps before failing to dodge a wrecked Riley Herbst and impacting the wall. A dejected Zilisch exclaimed over the radio, “I’m so fucking horrible. Gosh! What am I doing!?”

Nemechek does number switch

With Sunday’s race being sponsored by Dollar Tree, who is celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2026, the discount store naturally wanted to take advantage of its partnership with Legacy Motor Club. In this case, it meant getting John Hunter Nemechek to change from his usual #42 to #40.

The change only impacted the number on the doors and roof and in official scoring. Everything else, from the crew to whoever received the owners’ points, was the same as it would be for the other 35 races on the schedule.

While rare, there have been cases of a team changing its number for a single race. This is usually done to honour an individual such as Bubba Wallace using #34 instead of #54 at the 2014 Kroger 200 out of respect for Wendell Scott, the only other black driver to win in NASCAR at the time, David Stremme going from #33 to #90 at the 2014 Federated Auto Parts 400 for the recently departed Junie Donlavey, and Joey Gase using #28 over #53 at the 2021 GEICO 500 as a nod to Davey Allison.

Legacy Motor Club’s predecessor Richard Petty Motorsports did the same at the 2013 Goody’s Headache Relief Shot 500 by having Aric Almirola switch from #43 to #41 to celebrate Maurice Petty’s induction into the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

Doing so for sponsors has also happened, whether to boost a promotion or for an anniversary. Such cases are also prevalent at the All-Star Race since it’s an exhibition: Jimmie Johnson went from #48 to #5 for Lowe’s 5% loyalty discount (his Hendrick team-mate Mark Martin, the usual #5 driver, switched to #25 as a throwback livery to Tim Richmond) in 2011, while Kyle Busch swapped from #18 to #75 at the 2016 race to commemorate M&M’s 75th anniversary.

Examples in points races include Matt DiBenedetto using #49 rather than #83 at the 2016 Ford EcoBoost 400 to promote NASCAR Heat Evolution‘s $49.99 price and Reed Sorenson changing to #74 from his #77 for two races in 2020 to help with filming the Netflix series The Crew.

Some sponsor-number arrangements last for longer. Richard Childress Racing fielded the #07 for five years from 2005 to 2009 because of Jack Daniel’s (Ol’ No. 7), while the United States Army backed the #01 during this time because its slogan was “Army of One”. Ricky Craven similarly spent the 1998 season in the #50 car to celebrate NASCAR’s golden anniversary.

This isn’t exclusive to NASCAR either. Dario Franchitti, who usually raced the #10 during his legendary IndyCar career, won the 2012 Indianapolis 500 in his lone start with #50 as part of Target’s golden anniversary. Another CGR driver in Charlie Kimball changed out his #83 for #42 at the 2016 Indy 500 because it’s how many hours sponsor Tresiba can last upon doing eight insulin injections a day.

Technically speaking, Nemechek’s #40 wasn’t the only one celebrating an anniversary on Sunday. Cody Ware also honoured his sponsor Schluter Systems‘ 51st birthday with a special white-and-gold livery, which might seem like an arbitrary age until you realise his car is #51. Isn’t that convenient?

Reddick’s summer of hell dooms regular season title

With the struggles he has endured in his rookie season so far, including Sunday’s race, it’s become a running joke that Zilisch is stuck in Torture City. It appears Tyler Reddick of all people has a summer villa here too.

Reddick’s 2026 began as good as any driver could dream of, winning the Daytona 500 and dominating the next two races to start the season three-for-three. He then added two more wins at Darlington and Kansas, giving him a staggering five in the first nine rounds. To many, Reddick looked like the easy favourite to win the title.

Well, there’s a reason the NASCAR season is 36 weeks long and not nine. His performance waned slightly in May and June, but he was still a perennial contender with top-six finishes in all but one race between Texas and Pocono. In San Diego, he was leading with three laps to go before spinning, starting a downturn that has only continued since. In the eight races since, he’s only recorded two top tens (Atlanta and Indianapolis) while finishing worse than 30th in every other race save for an 11th at Richmond.

After leading the points for much of the season, he had since fallen to fourth entering Loudon. While his spot in the Chase was assured, Reddick was desperate for a get-right race to ensure he was back on track before the post-season began. Indeed, the weekend started strong as he won the pole.

The wheels came off almost immediately after that. He led much of the opening lap before spinning off Turn 4 to bring out a caution, nearly collecting Denny Hamlin and Chris Buescher. This left him mired outside the top 30 for much of the day before finding his ground. Although he was able to claw his way back to a ninth-place run, Hamlin – who took the points lead from Reddick at Sonoma – secured the regular season championship, meaning he will start the Chase with the most points.

“These are our bad days, bad-ish, but I feel good about where our team is right now,” said Hamlin. “Everyone is kind of clicking well and we don’t have a whole lot of weaknesses. We’re just not as strong as the Penske cars on these types of race tracks, but Martinsville we are good, Phoenix we’ve been good, just over the last few years this has not been as strong as those guys.

“When I say strong, I mean top five, top seven, so it’s something we can work with. The mile and-a-halfs are certainly something that’ve been our strength for a couple of years now. I look forward to getting the Chase started and seeing where it goes.”

Ryan Blaney laughed his way to his third win of the season to comfortably sit second in the standings with one race to go until the Chase.

2026 Dollar Tree 301 – Results