Haas Factory Team driver Sam Mayer may not have turned in the flash and multi-victory pizzazz this year that Zilisch has demonstrated, but the 22-year-old Wisconsin native won at Iowa Speedway in August and his 15 top-10s through the opening 26-races points to the consistent success he’s shown all year.
The driver of the No. 41 HFT Ford concedes Zilisch has proven himself the driver to beat, but Mayer said he’s up for the challenge.
“I’m really proud of everyone at the Haas Factory Team right now, for sure, I feel like we’ve definitely had a lot of adversity the last couple weeks to fight through and we never gave up on each other,” said Mayer, whose best championship finish was third in 2023.
“I guess it’s the 88 (Zilisch) and everyone else. … but I feel like we’re making steps in the right direction with the Playoff (points) reset and the way these Playoffs are, all the stuff you do [in the regular season], can also not matter in an instant. You just want to peak at the right time. You want to be able to do what you can in these next three races to make it to the next round.
“I feel pretty good with what we have,” he added, “We’re not good enough to be dominant like that [Zilisch] but I don’t feel like we’re too far off from that point either.”