Trackhouse Racing rookie Connor Zilisch has long been touted as one of NASCAR’s hottest prospects.
Despite a tumultuous rookie year at the Cup Series level, the 20-year-old driver of the No. 88 Chevrolet remains one of the early rumored candidates for a coveted seat at Hendrick Motorsports for the 2028 season.
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In a Monday appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Trackhouse team owner Justin Marks addressed the recent rise in attention Zilisch has received since Hendrick Motorsports and Alex Bowman announced Bowman’s impending retirement following the 2027 campaign.
“He’s probably coveted for everybody,” Marks said on “SiriusXM Speedway” with host Dave Moody. “He’s a very talented driver. He’s a very smart young man. He’s got a big career in front of him. And I think for us, we are committed to Connor; Connor is committed to us through the end of 2027. And 2028, although it’ll be here quickly, is a little too far away I think for us to be spending a lot of bandwidth on at the moment. Because what we’re trying to solve for right now is get him the experience, get him comfortable. We’ve got a great relationship with Red Bull and a lot of our other partners on the Chevrolet that he drives, and it’s important for us to be executing on the agreement and the relationship and partnership that we have now.”
👀 “2028 [. . .] is a little too far away I think for us to be spending a lot of bandwidth on at the moment.”@TeamTrackhouse owner Justin Marks on the rumors about @ConnorZilisch‘s future after 2027.
Full Interview ➡️ https://t.co/MKhd9eLpQA pic.twitter.com/6Df51UmE2m
– SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) (@SiriusXMNASCAR) July 28, 2026
Zilisch won 10 times in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series last season before finishing second in the final standings. However, that success has yet to translate to the Cup Series, where Zilisch has finished outside the top 30 in seven of his last 10 starts, with six DNFs due to crashes.
“I think that it’s on Trackhouse to continue to work really, really hard to try to give him good race cars,” Marks said. “It’s on him to continue to do the work to be prepared and to show up and be the best race-car driver that he can be. I think 2027 can be a really big year for him and for us. (He’ll have) a whole year under his belt and he can go to all these races for the second time or third or fourth time and really know what he’s up against. And I say all that to say that that’s really where our mind is at right now. I think when it comes time to talk about the future, we’ll have that conversation with him knowing that he’s a highly sought-after driver.”
As teams seek a path toward a possible future with Zilisch, Marks is keen on making Trackhouse Zilisch’s most attractive option.
“I think that those conversations around him probably want to start sooner rather than later, and it’s our job to present ourselves as a place that he wants to be,” Marks said. “And if that happens and he’s at Trackhouse for a while into the future, great. If something different happens, then that’s the way it goes. We’ll all go on and try to be the best that we can be. But right now, I just want to try to get him up the order and hopefully get him in Victory Lane while he’s contracted with us now.”