Sonoma NASCAR Xfinity Series race was a preview of the future

Zilisch's victory comes one week after van Gisbergen nudged Zilisch into the turn 1 wall at the Chicago Street Course en route to victory. On Saturday, van Gisbergen played nicer with his young contemporary, allowing their battle to play out in the most natural way possible. 

After starting on the front row together, van Gisbergen and Zilisch were glued to each other throughout the 79-lap race — Zilisch led 46 laps, while van Gisbergen was out front for 24 circuits. 

As fun to watch as their battles over the past two weeks have been, van Gisbergen and Zilisch may soon find themselves battling for road course wins on a bigger stage. 

Van Gisbergen is already in the midst of his rookie season in the Cup Series with Trackhouse Racing and has two Cup Series wins under his belt. He'll go for a third on Sunday at Sonoma, where he'll start from the pole.

Zilisch, meanwhile, is the heir apparent to the No. 99 Chevrolet at Trackhouse, which will be vacated by Daniel Suarez at the end of  2025. 

Should Zilisch be promoted to full-time Cup Series competition in 2026 — or even if Trackhouse waits until 2027 to call him up — he and van Gisbergen will likely find themselves battling for plenty of road course wins in the Cup Series — and just as they have been in the Xfinity Series with JR Motorsports, they'd be teammates. 

The battle for the win between van Gisbergen and Zilisch will be water-cooler fodder on Monday, but their road-course tussles in the Cup Series will likely be delighting fans for years to come.