Connor
Zilisch
United States
·
Stockcar
Date of birth | 22 July 2006 |
|---|---|
Place of birth | Charlotte, NC |
Age | 19 |
Nationality | United States |
Career start | 2022 |
Disciplines | NASCAR |
Connor Zilisch is proof that you can take a boy out of NASCAR country, but you can’t take NASCAR out of the boy.
The Weddington, North Carolina native was karting before he started kindergarten and by eight, he was competing nationally. When Connor won the US national karting title at 11, he earned a ticket to race in the 2017 Mini ROK World Championship in Italy.
“I went there with low expectations and ended up winning the world championship my first race in Europe,” he says.
Three years later, Connor became the first American to win the 2020 CIK-FIA Karting Academy Trophy – an international competition featuring the world’s top 12-to-14-year-old karters.
A chance meeting with 2014 NASCAR Cup champion Kevin Harvick flipped the script from open wheel to stock cars and Connor set speed records in Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) events before earning his driving licence. In his Trans Am TA2 debut, he scored pole at Virginia International Raceway.
He won rookie honours in the Spec Miata Class and then advanced to Mazda MX-5 Cup Shootout competition and won a participation scholarship for 2022. Connor scored four MX-5 Cup victories and finished second in the standings, winning the 2022 Rookie of-the Year in the process.
Connor then transitioned to ovals with late-model stock cars in 2023 and, aged 17, he finished second in his ARCA debut at Watkins Glen. Then, in 2024, he won four of eight ARCA races entered, as well as winning his first-ever NASCAR Xfinity start at New York's The Glen race circuit and claiming pole and finishing fourth on his NASCAR truck debut.
In 2025, Zilisch ran full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and enjoyed a memorable breakout campaign with 10 wins, 20 top-five finishes and eight poles. That performance earned him the Driver of the Year Award and marked the second straight season a JR Motorsports driver claimed the coveted trophy.
For 2026, Zilisch will race full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series with Trackhouse Racing, driving the No. 88 Chevrolet.