{"id":701600,"date":"2026-05-29T13:19:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T13:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/701600\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T13:19:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T13:19:10","slug":"max-verstappen-and-isack-hadjar-take-on-nascar-challenge-with-connor-zilisch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/701600\/","title":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar take on NASCAR challenge with Connor Zilisch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/driver\/max-verstappen\/17529\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Max Verstappen<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/driver\/isack-hadjar\/827922\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Isack Hadjar<\/a> recently swapped their Formula 1 machinery for a sim racing seat in a NASCAR challenge alongside Red Bull athlete Connor Zilisch.<\/p>\n<p>The challenge was simple: tackle\u00a0the Miami International Autodrome circuit in the virtual NASCAR machine and see who could set the fastest lap time.<\/p>\n<p>Zilisch, who currently competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series in the No. 88 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Trackhouse Racing, was the first to take the sim racing wheel. &#8220;This must be so horrendous in this car at the chicane,&#8221; Verstappen remarked while watching the onboard footage.<\/p>\n<p>The lack of grip and cold tyres eventually caught out the American, who suffered a 360-degree spin. After the spin, Zilisch aborted his first run and eventually managed to set a benchmark time of 2m01.87s.<\/p>\n<p>Next up was Hadjar, who quickly discovered that controlling a NASCAR stock car is no easy feat. &#8220;It&#8217;s a weird position,&#8221; he said as he took to the seat.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The 21-year-old\u00a0had multiple collisions with the race wall. &#8220;It&#8217;s so difficult. This is going to be fun,&#8221; Hadjar said to Verstappen, who was up next.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>When it came to Verstappen&#8217;s turn to step into the sim rig, the Dutchman opted for a different approach: driving in his socks. &#8220;I cannot drive with shoes, though, so I need to take them off,&#8221; the four-time F1 champion explained before starting his lap.<\/p>\n<p>Hadjar revealed it was &#8220;a lot&#8221; harder than he expected before asking Zilisch if it was realistic. The NASCAR driver explained: &#8220;Honestly, it&#8217;s less grip in real life.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Unsurprisingly, Verstappen adapted to the new virtual machinery quickly, despite clipping the wall a couple of times.<\/p>\n<p>Verstappen managed to beat Zilisch to take the victory with a time of 2m01.11s. Zilisch followed in second with 2m01.87s, while Hadjar failed to\u00a0set a time.<\/p>\n<p>            We want your opinion!<\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-auto\">What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?<\/p>\n<p>            <a href=\"#\" class=\"ms-link text-link font-bold\">Take our 5 minute survey.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-1 text-body\">&#8211; The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar recently swapped their Formula 1 machinery for a sim racing seat in a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":701601,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,245948,9398,250440,576,3028,1885,255354,634,3628,2190,82,4962],"class_list":["post-701600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-gp","tag-connor-zilisch","tag-f1-canadian-grand-prix","tag-formula-1","tag-isack-hadjar","tag-max-verstappen","tag-max-verstappen-and-isack-hadjar-take-on-nascar-challenge-with-connor-zilisch","tag-nascar","tag-nascar-cup","tag-red-bull-racing","tag-sports","tag-trendingteam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701600","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=701600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/701601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=701600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=701600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=701600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}