PREVIEW: Zilisch’s Cup debut headlines COTA weekend of road racing upstarts
by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
PHOTO: Trackhouse Racing, @TeamTrackhouse
Saturday, March 1, 2025 (Green Flag 2:40 P.M. ET, CW)
XFINITY Race 3 of 33
Focused Health 250 at the Circuit of the Americas
2024 Last-Place Finisher: Josh Williams
ENTRY LIST
There are 41 drivers entered for 38 spots, meaning three will fail to qualify.
RETURNING: #9-JR Motorsports
First of the four Cup Series regulars taking part in Saturday’s XFINITY Series race is Ross Chastain, who won his first Cup Series race at this track three years ago. This time, he pilots JR Motorsports’ #9 entry, which has now scaled back to a part-time effort, with Acceptance Insurance as the listed sponsor. Chastain’s most recent XFINITY start came at Watkins Glen last fall, where he finished 6th for DGM Racing.
DRIVER CHANGE: #14-SS-Green Light Racing
Earlier this week, Garrett Smithley – 24th in Atlanta – announced he would not be driving Bobby Dotter’s #14 car with his longtime sponsor Trophy Tractor as he didn’t feel confident in his road racing abilities. Taking the wheel will be another Cup regular in Carson Hocevar, who nearly scored his first Cup win last week in Atlanta. However, Hocevar has just five XFINITY starts, and transmission issues during his series debut in 2023 put him in last place.
RETURNING: #17-Hendrick Motorsports
William Byron, winner of two consecutive Daytona 500s and the Cup race at COTA last year, will of course need more laps under his belt, so he will be running double-duty in the Hendrick #17. Byron also gave this car its most recent XFINITY start last fall in Watkins Glen, where he came home 12th.
DRIVER CHANGE: #19-Joe Gibbs Racing
Still another Cup regular is current rookie contender Riley Herbst, who rejoins JGR’s XFINITY program for the first time since the 2020 season finale at Phoenix, where he came home 11th in the #18. This time, he’s the latest to take over in JGR’s “all-star” #19 entry, taking the place of 3rd-place Atlanta finisher Aric Alimrola.
RETURNING: #24-Sam Hunt Racing
Fresh off his signing with 23XI as their reserve driver, Corey Heim looks to continue his rise through the ranks with his 18th XFINITY series start and first of 2025. Heim’s most recent series start came last fall at Las Vegas, where he finished 11th in Sam Hunt’s #26. This time, he drives SHR’s returning #24 entry, which we last saw Ryan Truex take to a 17th-place finish in this year’s Daytona opener.
RETURNING: #32-Jordan Anderson Racing
It was in this race last year that Austin Green burst on the scene in NASCAR when he finished a stunning 7th in his series debut, a partnership between his Trans-Am effort with the Peterson Racing Group and NASCAR’s Jordan Anderson. This time, Green carries Anderson’s Volpi sponsorship from Daytona in what will be his ninth series start and first since a 29th-place run at Homestead last fall.
DRIVER CHANGE: #35-Joey Gase Motorsports with Scott Osteen
Baltazar Leguizamon of Argentina seeks his first XFINITY Series start of his career after he failed to qualify for this same race two years ago with Mike Harmon Racing. This time around, he drives for the Joey Gase team in place of Gase himself, who finished 21st in Atlanta.
DRIVER CHANGE: #45-Alpha Prime Racing
The preliminary entry list showed “TBA” for this third entry from the Alpha Prime stable, but it has since been announced that Brad Perez will make his first start of the year, taking the place of 28th-place Atlanta finisher Mason Massey. Perez, who made his Truck Series debut at this track three years ago, finished a strong 20th that day. His best of two XFINITY starts here came just last year, when he took home 18th with this same team. Apex Coffee Roasters and Weiss Sand & Clay return as sponsors.
RETURNING: #50-Pardus Racing
Road racing also means the return of fellow Spec Miata competitor Preston Pardus and his family’s #50 entry. Pardus made his 28th and most recent series start at Martinsville last fall, where he finished 24th in his NASCAR oval track debut. He also ran 10th-fastest in practice at COTA that year, but a snapped axle prevented him from qualifying fast enough to make the field. A chance at redemption comes this weekend.
DRIVER CHANGE: #53-Joey Gase Motorsports with Scott Osteen
The second Gase entry, driven to a 31st-place finish in Atlanta by Mason Maggio, originally showed “TBA” in the driver’s column. But it was soon revealed that Sage Karam would return to the driver’s seat, his first start since last fall on the Charlotte “Roval,” where he took 29th after brake issues on Bobby Dotter’s #07. As of Tuesday, the Gase team revealed Karam did not have a sponsor for this weekend, showing only a flat white Toyota in the team’s shop. Interested parties can contact the team at joeygasepr@gmail.com.
DRIVER CHANGE: #70-Cope Family Racing
After earning stage points in Daytona, then taking home a 7th-place finish last week in Atlanta, Leland Honeyman, Jr. is out of the #70 this week, as the Cope team had already planned to split the schedule between Honeyman and road racer Thomas Annunziata. Annunziata made his first five career XFINITY starts last year, beginning with two of the last starts for JD Motorsports, then another three for Joey Gase – including a NFPA-sponsored car that has just been released in 1:64 scale diecast. Bayshore Mortgage is Annunziata’s sponsor for his season debut as he looks to keep the team’s momentum going.
MISSING: #74-Mike Harmon Racing
Carson Ware is not among this week’s entries following a quiet 32nd-place finish in Atlanta that saw the Mike Harmon entry finish under power, just two laps down. Ware has since announced a new sponsorship deal with Costa Oil – which broke into the sport with Ryan Ellis – as the company will sponsor Ware in three races, starting with Martinsville later this month.
MISSING: #92-DGM Racing x JIM
DRIVER CHANGE: #07-SS-Green Light Racing
C.J. McLaughlin, who finished 25th in Atlanta, is not entered as the DGM x JIM effort scales back to just two entries this week. While 30th-place Atlanta finisher Josh Bilicki remains in the #91 poised for a better run on the road course, the #07 sees 22nd-place Atlanta finisher Nick Leitz replaced by a returning Alex Labbe. A persistent presence on the road courses, Labbe aims for his 157th series start and first of the season. He most recently ran 14th last fall on the Charlotte “Roval.”
CUP INVADERS: #9-Ross Chastain, #14-Carson Hocevar, #17-William Byron, #19-Riley Herbst
Sunday, March 2, 2025 (Green Flag 12:49 P.M. ET, FOX)
CUP Race 3 of 36
Echopark Texas Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas
2024 Last-Place Finisher: Justin Haley
ENTRY LIST
There are 37 drivers entered for 40 spots, marking the second short field in three races this season.
MISSING: #44-NY Racing Team
Not among this week’s entrants is J.J. Yeley, whose #44 Green River Whiskey Chevrolet was collected in a grinding Lap 184 pileup, leaving him 37th.
MISSING: #78-Live Fast Motorsports
Also not attempting this week’s race is B.J. McLeod’s Live Fast entry, which narrowly avoided involvement in the Yeley wreck and endured to a 22nd-place finish. On Lap 85, McLeod also led the first non-Ford lap of the race.
NEW TEAM: #87-Trackhouse Racing
Oddsmakers and retro paint scheme enthusiasts are already raving about the lone “open” entry in the field, already speculating whether 18-year-old Connor Zilisch – the second-youngest driver to enter a race in all three of NASCAR’s top series, after Joey Logano – can match the feat of Shane van Gisbergen and win in his first series start. The trend has already been impressive. Just last year, Zilisch won the pole in his Truck Series debut at COTA, then won the pole and the race in his XFINITY debut at Watkins Glen. Now, he’ll run as Van Gisbergen’s teammate in a fourth Trackhouse entry sponsored by Red Bull. Zilisch will also be bringing car #87 back into a Cup Series field for the first time since July 13, 2014, when Timmy Hill finished 41st at Loudon as Joe Nemechek’s team was absorbed into Identity Ventures Racing. The last time the #87 won a Cup race? You have to go back to April 13, 1963, when Buck Baker’s 1963 Pontiac won at Greenville-Pickens Speedway. Baker scored all but one of the 27 Cup victories earned by the #87, the lone exception a Martinsville victory in 1954 where Jim Paschal ran in his place.
MISSING: #01-Rick Ware Racing
Corey LaJoie is also not entered this week after back-to-back superspeedway races for the Rick Ware team. RWR is not fielding a second entry at all this week, also leaving out the #15 team which ran at Bowman Gray Stadium with Tim Brown.
Friday, March 14, 2025
TRUCKS Race 3 of 25
Victoria’s Voice 200 at Las Vegas
2024 Last-Place Finisher: Timmy Hill
The Truck Series returns in Las Vegas in two weeks.
TODAY IN LASTCAR HISTORY (February 28, 1971): Dean Dalton becomes the first last-place finisher of a Cup Series race at the Ontario Motor Speedway when his #17 1969 Ford as flagged off the track after 2 laps of the inaugural Miller High Life 500. Dalton started 43rd in a field of 51 in what was his first of 117 Cup Series starts. His best career finish of 6th came at Darlington on April 15, 1973.
