The biggest prospect in recent NASCAR history joins the Cup Series field beginning in 2026.
He hails from North Carolina, stands just under six feet tall, and has a résumé so impressive that he was signed as a Red Bull athlete at 18. Accompanying the raw talent behind the wheel is a wide smile and an infectiously engaging personality. In what seems like no time at all, he’s won races across the United States and Europe, breaking records along the way.
The name, for those unfamiliar or who didn’t hear it enough during his historic rookie season in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, where he won 10 races and the regular season championship, is Connor Zilisch. Trackhouse Racing, which brought Zilisch to NASCAR for the first time in 2024, will field him in the No. 88 Chevrolet next year with Red Bull and WeatherTech as his biggest partners.
“I think he’s better than I was at that age, and he seems to be more mature than I was at that age,” three-time Cup Series champion Joey Logano laughed. “It’s easy as an 18- or 19-year-old to drink the Kool-Aid. He’s a great driver, no doubt. He won a lot of Xfinity races. Cup racing is different. Everybody is great at this level. Everybody is fantastic.
“So, you can’t drink your own Kool-Aid too much where you think you’re the next thing because you’re going to get here and fall on your face. I lived it. As good as I think he is and will be, I also think he has to stay humble throughout it all and remember what’s important.”
Logano is indeed a great example for Zilisch to study what it’s like to be considered the sport’s Next Big Thing. In the early 2000s, Logano had raised so many eyebrows for what he was doing on his way up the racing ladder that two-time NASCAR Xfinity Series champion Randy LaJoie nicknamed him “Slice Bread,” as in the greatest thing since.
Joe Gibbs Racing signed Logano as a teenager, and he quickly began winning races on short tracks while showing he could hang with the best in NASCAR’s national series. He became the youngest winner in Xfinity Series history in 2008. A year later, earlier than expected and before he was ready, Logano was in the Cup Series. The depth of competition brought Logano back down to earth quickly as he struggled to find his footing and results.
Kyle Busch is another case study for Zilisch. He, too, entered the Cup Series with a lot of attention and expectation.
It started with Kurt Busch, who told anyone who would listen that if they thought he was good, wait until they saw his younger brother. Kyle Busch made his national series debut at 16 years old in 2001. Hendrick Motorsports signed him to a deal shortly thereafter, putting him in the Xfinity Series at 18 years old.
Busch won five races in his rookie year. He was in the Cup Series a year later. Now he is a two-time champion.
“Let me preface this first by saying this is no dig at Ty, but look at Ty Gibbs,” said Busch of what Zilisch should expect in 2026. “It’s the same sort of thing: dominating the Xfinity Series, winning with one of the best teams out there, doing everything right and getting results, winning a championship and then getting to the Cup Series and just not understanding the level that it takes at this level to be good or run up front, capitalize, win races and the such. Again that’s no dig on Ty, it’s just a fact. So, Zilisch is going to have the same thing. It’s a rude awakening.
“When you look at the Truck Series to the Xfinity Series, you can kind of say, ‘OK that’s a little bit of a step up. I get it.’ But when you look at the Xfinity Series to the Cup Series, that step is so huge, and the good teams are obviously proving themselves as the standouts, but drivers … a lot of them don’t get it or can’t comprehend that step.”
Busch believes part of what hurts younger drivers nowadays is that they aren’t competing against Cup Series drivers before reaching the Cup Series level. NASCAR took away that opportunity — and what Busch did on his way up — when they put restrictions on how many races a Cup Series driver can run in other series (capping them at five).
Zilisch began racing at 5 years old and spent a decade karting. During that time, he won the FIA Karting Academy Trophy (at 14 years old and as the first American) and raced in Europe. It was during his time overseas that he caught the attention of NASCAR champion Kevin Harvick, changing his life trajectory. Harvick took Zilisch under his wing, introduced him to stock car racing, and made it known that Jim Zilisch, Connor’s father, could not let his son stop racing and go to college.
Fortunately, the advice stuck. Zilisch soon began competing in various motorsports disciplines in the United States, including the Mazda MX-5 Cup, sports cars and stock cars. Zilisch was fast in everything, and collected wins in Late Model Stock Cars, the 24 Hours of Daytona, the 12 Hours of Sebring, and his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut in 2024.
In the three Cup Series starts Zilisch made in 2025, the learning curve and time it’s going to take for him to adjust were front and center. He knows he will make mistakes, the car leaves little room for error because of how on edge it is, and he will have bad days.
“There are no breaks given whether you’re racing for the win, a top 10 or 32nd,” Zilisch said. “It doesn’t matter; everyone is there to be in the next-best position and everyone gets paid to finish as good as possible. There is no slack cut like there is in Xfinity. In Xfinity, you get to the top five, and it gets tougher, but from 10th on back, especially being in such a good car, people understand that you’re not going to be able to hold someone off for long. But in Cup, it’s just ruthless. Those guys race for every spot like it’s the last lap of their lives.
“It’s what it’s talked up to be. The Cup Series is no joke, and I don’t think it’s quite understood how big of a jump Saturday to Sunday is.”
Zilisch has proven he should be a Cup Series driver, but like many who have come before him, time will tell how quickly it takes him to swim in the deep end of the pool he’s being thrown into. Logano needed time and experience, and a second chance from a different team owner, before he became a champion. Busch was fast right from the start.
It wouldn’t be a surprise if it went either way for Zilisch.
“I’m friends with Zane [Smith] and Noah [Gragson] and they told me, ‘Dude, just wait until you’re fighting for a lucky dog or you’re 25th and you’re cheering that you finished top 20,'” Zilisch said. “You don’t understand until you get there. Every guy in the Cup series was a champion or a winner or was dominating at certain points of their career and you get to the Cup Series, and nobody dominates. There is no guy who’s clear ahead of the field. It’s just different, and it’s tough to understand. It sucks losing, but you learn how to lose.”
