Joey Logano issues predictions for Connor Zilisch's NASCAR Cup Series rookie season

Joey Logano has predicted what teenage phenom Connor Zilisch will face in his first year of full-time Cup Series competition.

19-year-old Zilisch has dominated in his full-time NASCAR debut this season in the Xfinity Series, improving as the year has gone on to take top-five finishes in each of the last 13 races, winning seven of them (including one race in which Parker Kligerman took over driving midway through).

NASCAR HEADLINES: King Petty slams 'bunch of ****' as iconic tradition under threat

Logano was just 18 when he debuted in the then-Sprint Cup Series, taking his first win at 19 to become the youngest driver to ever win a Cup race, but didn't finish top ten in points until his fifth season, after leaving Joe Gibbs Racing for Penske.

Now a three-time Cup Series champion, the 35-year-old Logano has predicted that Zilisch will face an easier transition to the big time than he himself had.

READ MORE: Team Penske star confirmed for switch to foreign racing series

Logano admits 'big age gap' in Cup Series debut

“I was pretty much the only rookie for the first seven or eight years of my career,” Logano said, quoted by Autoweek. “I was going up against guys that had been there a long time. There was a big age gap there.”

The three-time champ also discussed the instant drivability of the Next Gen car, saying: “They [the cars in the late 2000s] were so unique. What you see today, we didn’t see back then with the old car whether it’s road courses or someone like Shane (van Gisbergen) can jump right in and take off.

"You didn’t really see that much with the old car because they were very finicky, they were very unique. There wasn’t another car like it.”

He continued: “Every team is gonna be a little different … every driver is different. I feel like probably some of my maturity level held me back a little bit, not that I was out there doing dumb things.

"I was very focused in on what I was doing, but I didn’t lead my team as good as I felt like I should have. I wasn’t assertive enough. I wasn’t confident enough to do that, and I feel like that over time kind of set me back a little bit to start.

“A lot of it is you’ve got to have the right people around you at the right times. That team that I started with would have been great at this time of my career, but as a rookie, it was not.”

READ MORE: Michael Jordan's GOAT response to NASCAR playoff agony for 23XI Racing team

Related