Connor Zilisch can be making a well-deserved soar to the NASCAR Cup Sequence in 2026. The 19-year-old is in the midst of his maiden Xfinity Sequence season with JR Motorsports and already has seven wins within the bag. By each account, he’s the favourite to win the championship. Trackhouse Racing introduced the information of his promotion to the premier tier this weekend at Daytona.
The teen needed to struggle again tears when addressing the press throughout the launch occasion. Sitting alongside Justin Marks (crew proprietor) and Dr. Eric Warren (International Motorsports Competitors vice chairman), Zilisch expressed his gratitude
to a bunch of people that helped him climb via the racing ranks and put him in his present place as a confirmed Cup Sequence driver.
Zilisch stated, “Initially, thanks to Eric and Justin. I used to be sitting within the Dix car parking zone throughout the road earlier at the moment and simply type of reflecting on the final 15 years of my life and what’s led to this second and received me up to now. I by no means thought I’d make it wherever in racing. My mother and father have been behind me since day one, via each second, the nice, the dangerous.”
The preliminary plan that his father had drawn up for him was to ship him to school after a few years of racing. However the intervention of the long-lasting Kevin Harvick is what stopped that. Zilisch recalled, “My dad was like, ‘Effectively, he’s going to race for an additional yr or two after which he’s going to go to school.’ And Kevin informed my dad, ‘You possibly can’t do this.’ So, to start with, thanks to Kevin.”
Zilisch went on to thank Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kelley Earnhardt for giving him his present seat with JR Motorsports, earlier than doing the identical for his ARCA Menards Sequence crew homeowners and his Trans Am crew.
The Charlotte-born prodigy made a particular point out of Gary Willis, who was his coach again throughout his karting days. “He was mainly my father for an excellent portion of my life,” he stated. “So, at the moment is a very, actually special occasion for me.”
