You remember the restart. Phoenix Raceway, November 1, 2025, the Xfinity Series championship on the line, 41 laps to go. A 19-year-old rookie fires off and takes the lead.
That was Connor Zilisch. He had won 10 races that season. Nobody else in the series had more than four. For 17 laps it looked like the trophy was coming home with him.
Then Jesse Love got by him off Turn 2 and held on. Love won the race and the title. Zilisch came home third.
That was the end of his rookie year. What came next, his first season in the Cup Series, was the hardest stretch of his racing life. To understand why it hit so hard, you have to know how good the year before it was, and where he came from.
Karts at five
He did not come up the way a lot of NASCAR kids do, on short tracks. He came up on road courses.
Zilisch was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, on July 22, 2006, and calls Mooresville home. He was racing karts at five and stayed in them for ten years, including a stint in Europe at 11. One of the kids he raced against over there was Kimi Antonelli, who in 2026 was leading the Formula 1 championship.
From karts he went to sports cars. In January 2024, at 17, he won his class at the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Then he won his class again, this time at the 12 Hours of Sebring. Trackhouse Racing signed him as a development driver that same year.
First start at the Glen
September 2024. He had turned 18 only weeks earlier. His first Xfinity Series start came at Watkins Glen, in a car from Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s JR Motorsports.
He put it on the pole. Then he won the race.
First start, first pole, first win.
Ten wins
In 2025 he ran his first full Xfinity season and won 10 times. Austin Hill was next on the list, with four.
And he did a lot of it hurt. In the spring at Talladega he hit the inside wall hard, hurt his back and had to sit out the next race, at Texas.
Then came the one everybody remembers. August, back at Watkins Glen. He won, climbed up onto his car in victory lane, lost his balance and fell. He broke his collarbone celebrating.
None of it carried over to Phoenix. Under the playoff format, the title came down to one race, and in that race ten wins did not count for anything. Love passed him, and the year ended in third place on the night and second in the championship.
"We did everything we could, and I left my heart out on the track, but second in the championship is all we got,"
Connor Zilisch, Phoenix, November 1, 2025
The rookie
Trackhouse moved him up to the Cup Series full time for 2026, in the No. 88 Chevrolet.
Eleven races in, his best finish was 14th, at Circuit of The Americas, and even that one stung: he had been running in the top five before he got spun. He had not led a lap. He said the team reset every weekend and did not let the bad results get to it. In May, the Associated Press wrote that Trackhouse Racing had endured a miserable year.
He got spun. He got wrecked. He got caught up in other people's crashes. At Michigan he crashed twice.
Tagged
Then there was the internet. The collarbone fall followed him everywhere. When another driver celebrated a win at Talladega, people remembered, and they made sure he saw it.
"I got tagged in so many things saying, 'Don't let Connor do this!'"
Connor Zilisch, to the Associated Press, May 2026
His crew kept working, and so did he. In May he went back to Watkins Glen in the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series, the old Xfinity Series under its new name, and won again. That made it three straight wins for him at the Glen.
The No. 48
June 28, Sonoma. He finished seventh. His first Cup top 10.
On August 17, Hendrick Motorsports announced it had signed him to a multi-year deal starting in 2028. The car is the No. 48, the one Jimmie Johnson drove to seven championships. Alex Bowman is stepping away from full-time racing after 2027. Zilisch will finish his contract with Trackhouse first.
Look at where he was when that deal came down. He had one top 10 in 24 Cup starts and sat 34th of 35 full-time drivers in points. Hendrick signed him anyway. He said it was his job to prove them right.
"This is one of those moments you dream about as a kid,"
Connor Zilisch, Hendrick Motorsports announcement, August 17, 2026
Back in July, Trackhouse owner Justin Marks had called him probably coveted by everybody, and said the team's job was to develop him, not worry about losing him.
Through 33 of 36 races this season, he has two top 10s, no wins, and he is 33rd in points. A year ago he won 10 races in a season. He is 20 now, still in the 88, with the 48 waiting for him.
GAMECHANGER™Reporting draws on the Associated Press, NBC, NASCAR.com, the NASCAR Wire Service via Jayski, RACER, Frontstretch, SPEED SPORT, Racing-Reference and Wikipedia's documented record of his career.
Sources (11)
Associated Press via WTOP: Connor Zilisch and Shane van Gisbergen hope to be on the right track at Watkins Glen · Associated Press via Yuma Sun: Zilisch and van Gisbergen at Watkins Glen · NBC New York: Connor Zilisch joining Hendrick Motorsports in the 48 car in 2028 · Jayski (NASCAR Wire Service): Rookie Connor Zilisch comes up short at end of remarkable season · NASCAR.com: Zilisch and van Gisbergen Watkins Glen preview · RACER: Marks not worried about Trackhouse losing Zilisch yet · Frontstretch: Connor Zilisch breaks through for 1st Cup Series top 10 · SPEED SPORT: Zilisch graduates to Cup Series for 2026 · Racing-Reference: Connor Zilisch driver statistics · Stat Sniper: Connor Zilisch season statistics · NBC Sports: NASCAR Xfinity Series to have new name in 2026