CONCORD, N.C. — Connor Zilisch is quickly climbing the NASCAR national series ranks, and he will knock off another milestone as he makes his NASCAR Cup Series debut on Sunday at Circuit of The Americas (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN Radio, Sirius XM NASCAR Radio).
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Zilisch, who won in his Xfinity Series debut for JR Motorsports last year at Watkins Glen International, will get plenty of attention as he tries to do the unthinkable and win in his Cup Series debut for Trackhouse Racing in the No. 87 Chevy. For the 18-year-old, this weekend is one he has been looking forward to for quite some time, and he’s not backing down from the challenge.
“I want to try and become the youngest Cup Series winner, and to do that, I have to race as soon as possible and get it in before I turn 19,” Zilisch said to reporters at the NASCAR Production Facility in Concord, North Carolina. “So, you know, I wanted to at least give myself a shot at that. So that was definitely part of my thinking. And honestly, I don’t feel like there’s anything that tells me that I’m not ready to race on a road course on Sunday.”
Whether he wins or not on Sunday, just being around JR Motorsports for his full-time Xfinity Series job and Trackhouse Racing before his Cup debut is exposing Zilisch to a wealth of racing knowledge. And he’s quickly been able to make friends and lean on veteran drivers for advice.
“Justin Allgaier, he’s a good example,” Zilisch said. “Even the last two races, I have gone to him and said, ‘Hey, you think what I did was, you know, wrong?’ And he’s a great person to lean on as a veteran of the sport and super talented. … But you know, at the end of the day, you just got to do it on the race track. And no matter what people tell you, if you don’t apply it, it doesn’t matter.”
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Like Zilisch, Trackhouse Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen also burst onto the NASCAR scene after winning his Cup Series debut in 2023 on the Chicago Street Course. He’s another veteran who helped Zilisch prepare for his looming Cup debut.
“I didn’t know him six months ago, well, six to 12 months ago,” Zilisch said of SVG. “I didn’t even know who he was, and I feel like now we’re pretty good friends. … It’s really cool to have those guys that, you know, give me and show me respect. You know, I appreciate it a lot, and he’s a guy that I’ve definitely leaned on and hung out with and been able to get a friend out of it.”
Beyond Sunday, Zilisch will keep experiencing a world of “firsts” as he continues his development with his full-time job in the Xfinity Series. In 2024, Zilisch made four starts in the series, with only one finish outside of the top 10 coming at Homestead-Miami Speedway (12th). He’s started off the 2025 season with back-to-back DNFs at Daytona International Speedway and Atlanta Motor Speedway.
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The challenge of experiencing new tracks for the first time is one met with excitement as the Rookie of the Year contender hopes to be winning regularly sooner rather than later.
“I’m just excited to go to new places and learn them and see which ones I like, which ones I don’t like,” Zilisch said. “There’s just a lot of question marks for me this year that I’m excited to kind of get to and learn. And you know, that’s the biggest thing for me, and the coolest part for me, you know, I’ve never been to these places, so, yeah, just trying to soak it all in, enjoy it.”