Connor Zilisch will join JR Motorsports to drive the No. 88 Chevrolet full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2025, the team announced Wednesday.
The 18-year-old driver has impressed at each stop on his racing journey, collecting five wins within the ARCA platform, a pole position in his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series debut in March at Circuit of The Americas, and numerous sports car victories, including this year’s Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway.
“Connor is such an impressive driver at this young age,” team co-owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. said in a team release. “We’re excited for him to get behind the wheel full-time next season. He is on a path to sure success with support from Chevrolet, Silver Hare Racing, Trackhouse, and now JR Motorsports.”
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Zilisch, a native of Mooresville, North Carolina, signed a multiyear deal with Trackhouse Racing in January, solidifying his development within the stock-car racing ladder. Despite just turning 18 on July 22, Zilisch’s resume already has notable accomplishments, including multiple United States national karting championships in his climb through the racing ranks.
The rise has been a rapid one, but in a Wednesday afternoon media availability, Zilisch said he was comfortable with the current pace, adding that there’s no set timetable to the next steps for his racing career.
“I’m taking it as it comes,” Zilisch said. “I feel like at every level that I’ve gone to, I’ve never really felt to this point that I’ve been rushed up to something too fast. I feel like everything I’ve gotten into, I feel like ARCA was a good step for me, and I think those ARCA races are really important for my growth because I do think that I’m learning a lot, racing in ARCA. But honestly, I don’t think it’s too big of a jump for me. I do think I’m going to have to learn a lot, and there’s going to be some growing pains, for sure, at the beginning of my tenure in the Xfinity Series, but I do think that racing in the Xfinity Series, there’s a lot of veterans — guys like Justin Allgaier and people in the series that have been there for a long time — that I think I’m going to learn a lot from, and I think it’s really valuable to have that.”
Zilisch will make his JRM debut on Sept. 14 at Watkins Glen International as part of a four-race deal announced in March, with future appearances set for Kansas Speedway (Sept. 28), Homestead-Miami Speedway (Oct. 26) and Phoenix Raceway (Nov. 9). He’s also set to make the second Craftsman Truck Series start of his career this weekend, driving for Spire Motorsports in Saturday’s Clean Harbors 250 (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Zilisch said Wednesday that he had explored other opportunities for 2025, but that the connection with JRM was months in the making.
“I think our goal was to go to JR Motorsports,” Zilisch said. “It wasn’t guaranteed, and we looked at other options. There’s a lot of good Chevrolet-affiliated teams with Kaulig and RCR (Richard Childress Racing), but at the end of the day, when you look at the Cup Series and the guys who have come through JR Motorsports and gone to the Cup Series, I feel like they’ve had the most success. And I do think there’s a lot of really good resources at JR Motorsports that I’ll be able to go and learn from as as we look on to the years to come. I feel like I’m in a really good spot with a lot of great people around me that’ll help guide me in the right direction as I get into the Xfinity Series next year.”
Details regarding sponsorship and partners for the No. 88 team will be announced at a later date.
Contributing: Staff reports