MOORESVILLE, N.C. \u2014 NASCAR\u2019s next great superstar lives at home with his parents.<\/p>\n
Connor Zilisch is a 19-year-old American racing prodigy who opens his NASCAR Cup Series rookie campaign in Sunday\u2019s Daytona 500. Naturally, he\u2019s always in a hurry on the racetrack. But he\u2019s in no rush to get his own place, and his family is just fine with that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have no reason to move out,\u201d Zilisch said. \u201cMy parents are awesome, and I\u2019m able to have friends over and do things that I want to do \u2014 as long as I clean up after myself and don\u2019t make a mess.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not every day you meet a Cup Series driver who still lives with Mom and Dad, but it makes perfect sense for Zilisch. Connor\u2019s mom, Jan, whips up home-cooked meals (pork chops and spaghetti are among the favorites) and his racing buddies show up to swim in the backyard \u2014 at least until quiet hours begin.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did have to talk to him at one point because it kind of became a frat house with the pool,\u201d said Jim Zilisch, Connor\u2019s dad. \u201cOur bedroom is right there and the hot tub is right there (outside it). It\u2019s like \u2018Connor, it\u2019s 11:30\u2026’\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026 I\u2019ve got work the next day,\u201d Jan added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey don\u2019t even knock! They just walk in,\u201d Jim said of Connor\u2019s driver friends. \u201cIt\u2019s like their house.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s just gentle teasing, because Jim and Jan are more than happy for Connor to be at home (for now at least). Their son\u2019s upcoming rookie season in the Cup Series is already going to be stressful and filled with pressure, and if it makes it less overwhelming to have an always-stocked pantry and freshly laundered bedsheets while surrounded by support \u2014 well, why not?<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m still 19 years old, and I\u2019m still a kid,\u201d Connor said. \u201cIt\u2019s not like I\u2019m getting to the age where it\u2019s like, \u2018Alright, this is getting a little weird.’\u201d<\/p>\n
Actually, there is something weird about his age \u2014 but it has nothing to do with living at home. What Zilisch has already achieved as a teenager, considering how little experience as he has in a stock car, is astonishing. Not all that long ago, relatively speaking, Zilisch was a kid with a brilliant road course racing background who never dreamed of ending up in the NASCAR world; his first-ever oval race was only in June 2022.<\/p>\n
But at every turn, Zilisch has shown an uncanny ability to adapt and get up to speed quickly. Zilisch has won 11 races in NASCAR\u2019s second-tier O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series (the equivalent of Triple-A baseball) and finished in the top five 23 times there \u2014 in just 36 starts.<\/p>\n
Now, after just one season in the minors, Zilisch is getting a call to the big leagues. He will drive the No. 88 Chevrolet for Trackhouse Racing while trying to outpace the excitement generated by a community bullish about what he could mean for NASCAR \u2014 which is badly in need of recognizable names to help restore its footing within the American sports landscape.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe success or failure of any sport is the attraction of the athletes to the fans,\u201d Trackhouse owner Justin Marks said. \u201cWhat Tiger did for golf, Lance Armstrong for cycling, Conor McGregor in UFC \u2014 these guys transcend the sport and elevate it.<\/p>\n
\u201cConnor has that opportunity in NASCAR. He\u2019s a generational talent, a compelling personality and a great story. His ceiling is so high. He has the potential to be one of the biggest stars in NASCAR.\u201d<\/p>\n
That might sound like an awful lot to put on the shoulders of a teenager, and borderline unfair in a world where too much media hype often sparks backlash. Except if any young driver is well-equipped to handle the expectations, it\u2019s Zilisch.<\/p>\n
Just ask his parents, who used to say Connor was 15 going on 30.<\/p>\n
Now they say he\u2019s 19 going on 40.<\/p>\n
Jim remembers a time when he looked down at his then-7-year-old son and thought: \u201cThis kid is either going to be a race car driver or President of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s just got that aura about him, and he\u2019s had it his entire life,\u201d Jim said.<\/p>\n
While a run for political office will have to wait, Connor\u2019s racing career is already at full speed \u2014 and it has been since he climbed into a go-kart for the first time at age 4.<\/p>\n
Jim described himself as a lifelong car geek, but his schoolteacher mother was a single parent. Money was tight, and there was certainly no thought of getting into racing.<\/p>\n
When he got a banking job and moved to suburban Charlotte in 1994, a co-worker noticed Jim\u2019s 1995 RX7 and asked if he ever took it to run on track days at a local motorsports complex.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can do that?\u201d Jim responded.<\/p>\n
Over time, Jim became such a regular at the track days that he eventually started moonlighting as a driving instructor in order to gain free entry. The automotive passion continued even after he and Jan had Connor, their third son, although it eventually reached a breaking point for Jan.<\/p>\n
One day, as Jim was off pursuing his hobby at Virginia International Raceway, he answered his cell phone to hear a tired and frustrated Jan on the other end.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t leave me with all these kids,\u201d she said while juggling a 7-year-old, 4-year-old and baby Connor.<\/p>\n
Jim\u2019s solution? He sold his track car and bought four karts \u2014 one for him and each of the boys so they could go with him. That ultimately became Connor\u2019s introduction to racing.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow long has he been doing this?\u201d someone asked Jim the first time Connor went out by himself on the track, noticing how the youngster seemed to nail the apexes with an uncanny natural ability.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is it,\u201d Jim replied, gesturing to the track.<\/p>\n
Technically, the minimum age to race a kart at Carolina Motorsports Park was 5. But the track officials saw Connor\u2019s comfort level on the track and let him participate in a race at age 4.<\/p>\n
He won that, as you might have guessed.<\/p>\n
When Connor first had a gas-powered kart, Jim wanted him to get some experience in their suburban Charlotte neighborhood. But he was nervous Connor would run through the end of the cul-de-sac into a mailbox or oncoming car, so Jim tied a long green rope to the rear bumper of the kart. Neighbors chuckled \u2014 and filmed \u2014 as Jim sprinted behind Connor\u2019s kart, holding the rope as a makeshift safety wire.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d pay $10,000 for that video,\u201d Jim said.<\/p>\n
When Connor was 7, the family started regularly traveling for races outside of North Carolina \u2014 and beating competition across the country in the process. Jim remembers one race in Indiana where other fathers were \u201cyelling at me for cheating,\u201d certain the Zilisch family must have been doing something to gain an advantage.<\/p>\n
Another time, Jim remembers the famed driver Juan Pablo Montoya leaning on the fence eyeing Connor\u2019s kart after a race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where Montoya\u2019s son was also racing.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter awhile, they all came to realize it was skill, not cheating,\u201d Jim said. \u201cBut there were an awful lot of eyebrows raised.\u201d<\/p>\n
Karting is a breeding ground for the world\u2019s best road racing drivers, like those who compete in Formula 1. But the best karting competition isn\u2019t found in the United States, so the Zilisch family eventually decided Connor\u2019s best opportunity was to race in Europe.<\/p>\n
Jim and Jan were both working full time (Jan has a PhD in pharmacology and works for a cancer biotech company), so they had to stay behind instead of joining their son overseas. Instead, starting at age 11, Connor was chaperoned by coach and mechanic Gary Willis and developed a unique sense of independence and worldliness as a result of his travels.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe never complained, he rarely called,\u201d Jan said. \u201cHe just loved being out and discovering different countries.\u201d<\/p>\n
If Connor was in Europe for eight weeks, Jim would take a week and a half of vacation to try and hit two race weekends. Other than that, Connor was on his own with Gary.<\/p>\n
In that sense, Connor was just like his mom. Jan was a gymnast who traveled to far-flung places like Romania and Hungary in the \u201980s, before the Iron Curtain fell, while competing internationally for Canada.<\/p>\n
An Ontario native, Jan was a member of the 1983 Canadian National Team and even made the 1984 Olympic team \u2014 but was injured during an early practice in Los Angeles and did not compete. She went on to earn All-American honors as a member of the University of Florida gymnastics team.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was traveling a lot and missing out on school, I always knew I could never complain to her,\u201d Connor said. \u201cBecause whenever I tried to complain to her, it was like, \u2018Dude, I used to have to sit in the gym for 40 hours a week and travel across the world for gymnastics \u2014 and there was no end of the road where I could get paid.’\u201d<\/p>\n
But there was that possibility for Connor, although it was a distant reality until 2017. That summer, he won a prestigious karting race in Italy against 164 of the world\u2019s best karters \u2014 a field that included future Mercedes F1 driver Kimi Antonelli.<\/p>\n
You might read that and wonder: Wait a second. If Zilisch was good enough to beat someone who became a Mercedes F1 driver, why didn\u2019t he ever go into the F1 ladder system?<\/p>\n
The answer is money. Though the Zilisch family wasn\u2019t hurting, Jim couldn\u2019t afford to be writing huge checks to fund his son\u2019s racing. So although he tried to get Connor into an F1 team\u2019s driver academy based on talent alone, Jim was eventually told a massive financial investment would still be required even if Connor had the skills to do it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s when the F1 dream officially died,\u201d Jim said.<\/p>\n
Connor returned to the United States and the family figured professional racing might not be in the cards after all. Jim was getting ready to retire from banking and told Connor he\u2019d pay for two years of racing Spec Miatas \u2014 an entry-level division of sports car racing \u2014 before his son had to figure it out himself.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, it didn\u2019t come to that. Connor ended up racing karts on the same team as Keelan Harvick, the son of future NASCAR Hall of Famer Kevin Harvick, and a connection with the elder Harvick opened more doors. Eventually, Connor made his way into Trans Am road racing, and his stunningly quick success there attracted the eye of the NASCAR world.<\/p>\n
The Zilisch bandwagon has been a runaway train ever since, except no one in the family ever thought it would be headed toward stock cars. Despite living in NASCAR\u2019s Charlotte-area hub since the \u201990s, the Zilisch family was never into NASCAR.<\/p>\n
\u201cDaytona 500 comes on, you watch a little bit, but it was all casual,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Plus, Jim was always a road racing guy. The idea of watching drivers go around in a circle for three hours didn\u2019t seem particularly appealing, though he said he\u2019s learned to appreciate it.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, there\u2019s something else for the family to appreciate at the racetrack. People keep telling Jim and Jan how shocking it is to see Connor\u2019s rapid success, how unbelievable it is for their son to jump into a new car and win so quickly, how wild it must be for them to see this all happen.<\/p>\n
Except they\u2019re hardly surprised at all. They\u2019ve already seen Connor do this for his entire life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m watching everyone else to see the reaction,\u201d Jim said, \u201cbecause I already know it\u2019s coming.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MOORESVILLE, N.C. \u2014 NASCAR\u2019s next great superstar lives at home with his parents. Connor Zilisch is a 19-year-old…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467903,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,12716,634,82],"class_list":["post-467902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-motorsports","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}